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SPEAKING AND WRITING 
ENGLISH 



A COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE EIGHT GRADES OF 
THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, WITH PRACTICAL 
SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHESTG COMPOSI- 
TION AND A FULL SET OF COM- 
POSITION STANDARDS 



BY 
BERNARD M. SHERIDAN 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS 



ov TToXX' dX.Xa ttoXv 



BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO. 

CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON 

1917 






Copyright, 1917, 
By BENJ. H. SANBOKN & CO. 



NOV ^6 1917 



©CU47773n 



r '- ^^ 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

This Course of Study was originally published in pamphlet 
form, under the present title, for use in the public schools of 
Lawrence, Massachusetts. The first edition was printed in Octo- 
ber, 1915. So great a demand for the book followed that a second 
and a third edition were exhausted within a little over a year from 
the date of the first appearance. The publication of the work in 
regular book form is in response to a persistent demand for the 
Course from superintendents and teachers who have urged that 
it be made permanently available for their use. 

Several new chapters have been added to Part One in the present 
edition. These, for the most part, are taken from the author's 
"Suggestions for the Improvement of Written Composition," pub- 
lished privately in January, 1917. Careful revision of other parts 
of the work has been made, wherever the results of the thorough 
trial of the plan in Lawrence have seemed to justify it. In the 
work of the primary grades considerable new material of practical 
value to teachers has been inserted. The number of illustrative 
compositions has been considerably increased. The grade 
"standards" are made to conform to the results of the author's 
continued first-hand study of children's capacity for growth in 
oral and written expression under this scheme of composition work. 
These changes mark no departure from the original aim and method 
of the plan. They merely serve to make both clearer to the 
teacher. 

In the writing of this Course ideas and suggestions from many 
sources were freely drawn upon. Especial obligation is due to the 
excellent Course of Study in Elementary Composition prepared 
in 1913 by the Department of Public Instruction for the State of 



iv AUTHOR'S NOTE 

New Jersey under the direction of the then Assistant Commis- 
sioner, George A. Mirick. 

Before the actual writing of the Course was begun, three years 
ago, its general plan was discussed for many months with my friend 
and former associate, Mr. John J. Mahoney, at that time assist- 
ant superintendent of the public schools of Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, and now principal of the State Normal School in Lowell, 
Massachusetts. Our plans to become joint authors of the work 
were, for no fault of his or mine, never carried out. In the intro- 
duction to his recently published "Standards in English" he makes 
a gracious reference to me. I am sure it was not more cordially 
made than is my acknowledgment of his genuine helpfulness to 
me in this and many another piece of professional work undertaken 
together. 

Finally, I wish to express my great indebtedness to Miss Leila M. 
Lamprey, my associate in Lawrence, for her invaluable assistance 
in the preparation of this book. It is Miss Lamprey's choice 
alwa.ys to share the labor and never to share the praise. I cannot 
let her part in making this book go unacknowledged. 

Bernard M. Sheridan. 

Lawrence, Mass. 

September 18, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Author's Note iii 

Part One — Introduction '. 1 

The Problem of Spoken and Written English in the Elementary 

School 1 

Spoken English 3 

Written English — In General 8 

One-Paragraph Compositions . . . . . . .11 

Importance of Keeping Paragraph Short . . . .' . 13 

Subjects should be Personal, Definite, and Brief . . .14 
Good and Bad Subjects Illustrated . . . . . .17 

A Word about Titles 22 

Teaching Pupils to Avoid the Trivial and Sensational in Per- 
sonal Experience 24 

The "Single Phase Idea" . . . . . . . .26 

Starting the Paragraph Right 35 

The Importance of Good Endings 38 

TheMastery of "The Sentence Idea" 40 

Gaining Mastery of the Sentence Idea through Three-Sentence 

Oral Compositions 43 

Correct Spelling of Common Words ...... 45 

Teaching Pupils to be Critical of Their Composition . . 46 

Part Two — Assignment of Work by Grades . . . . 51 

First Grade 51 

Second Grade . . . . . . . . . .61 

Third Grade 74 

Fourth Grade 86 

Fifth Grade 97 

Sixth Grade . 109 

Seventh Grade ... ... .... 120 

Eighth Grade .......... 132 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Appendix . . . . . . . <> . . . 144 

Appendix I — Sounds Presenting Difficulty c . . . 147 

Appendix II — Selected Language Games . . . .149 

Appendix III — Standard Letter Forms . . . . . 158 



PART ONE 

INTRODUCTION 

THE PROBLEM OF SPOKEN AND WRITTEN ENGLISH 
IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Language is by all odds the most important subject in the 
curriculum. It is, also, for many reasons the subject that is 
most difficult to teach. There has been an almost entire lack 
of standards for the teacher to go by. The language habits in 
the home and on the street are generally not good. There is so 
little " linguistic conscience " among grown-up people that it is 
difficult to arouse any in little children. These difficulties have 
been enormously increased in recent years by the influx into 
many communities of large numbers of non-English-speaking 
peoples, with the result that in many schools the teaching of 
English is no longer the teaching of the mother tongue, but the 
teaching of a foreign language. 

The purpose of this course of study is to help the teacher to 
meet the elementary language problem more effectively and more 
hopefully. A few things it aims definitely to do : 

(1) To replace vague, uncertain, and sometimes too am- 
bitious aims with a purpose clearly defined and reasonably 
possible of achievement. 

(2) To prescribe limits within which the elementary work 
in language is to be confined. 

(3) To emphasize the teaching of oral language, both for 
its own sake and for its value as a foundation and preparation 
for written language, and to formulate a systematic and pro- 

1 



2 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

gressive plan of teaching this most important and nAich 
neglected side of English composition. 

(4) To construct tentative standards of achievement for 
each of the eight elementary grades, in both oral and written 
language, which it seems reasonable to expect the majority of 
pupils to reach. 

The lack of a clear and definite limitation of the work to be 
covered in language teaching in the elementary school has been 
responsible for much of the waste which has attended the teach- 
ing of the subject. Courses of study have called for more than 
could possibly be accomplished. The requirements have been 
too many and too vague. Many things have been taught that 
should have been postponed to the high school, since they do not 
appeal to the needs or the capacity of the stage of development 
of the ordinary elementary school pupil. Pupils who leave the 
elementary school before completing the course will be better off 
for having been taught a smaller number of things thoroughly and 
for having had abundant practice in these few fundamental things. 

The kind and amount of language training in the elementary 
school should be largely determined, it seems^fair to say, by the 
answers to the following questions : 

1. What are the common language needs of people in every- 
day life ? 

2. What specific language habits can the school cultivate 
which will most usefully meet the demands that will be made 
upon the boy and girl at the end of their elementary school 
course .f^ 

3. What capacity for oral and written expression is pos- 
sessed, or may with reasonable effort be acquired, by ordinary 
children in the different grades ? 

In the light of such a study of children's language needs and 
capacities, the following would seem to be a reasonable and work- 
able aim for the elementary school : 



THE PROBLEM IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 3 

1. To turn out pupils able to stand before the class and talk 
for a minute or two upon a subject within the range of their knowl- 
edge or experience, speaking plainly, in clean-cut sentences, and 
without common grammatical mistakes. 

%. To turn out pupils able to write with fair facility an 
original paragraph upon a subject within the range of their ex- 
perience or their interests. 

Such a paragraph should show : 

1. An absolute mastery of " the sentence idea." 

2. Freedom from glaring grammatical mistakes. 

3. Correct spelling of all ordinary words. 

4. Unfailing use of the commonest marks of punctuation. 

5. Some evidence of attention to matters of sentence structure 

and to the choice of words. 

SPOKEN ENGLISH 

It is much more important that the elementary school should 
give pupils ability to talk well than it is that it should give them 
ability to write well. This is simply because people talk more 
than they write. Few people write much, but all people talk 
a good deal. People who write for a business may write a book 
or two in a year. Most people talk enough in a single week to 
fill a book. Graduates of the grammar school are seldom put to 
a test of their knowledge of arithmetic or history or geography. 
But their spoken English is in evidence every day of their lives. 
Very often their success in business and in their intercourse with 
other people depends upon their power to speak well. Yet the 
school has made a good deal more fuss over "the comma in a 
series" than it has over the spoken English of its pupils. Mum- 
bling speech, the absence of any sure sentence control, gross gram- 
matical errors, and a vocabulary as bare as a bone have been char- 
acteristic of the spoken English of altogether too many grammar 
school graduates. 



4 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

There are several reasons why our pupils do not learn to talk 
well : 

(1) There is not enough of oral language work, as a separate 
and distinct training, in the elementary school. 

(2) Oral work is not utilized as much as it ought to be as an 
aid in, and a preparation for, written work. The child who is 
to be taught to write well must first be taught to talk well. 

(3) The other school subjects are not utilized as effectively as 
they might be to develop power in oral composition. 

(4) The common method of the recitation furnishes little mo- 
tive for the pupil to talk well. Very rarely has he the sense that 
he is addressing an audience with the purpose of saying something 
worth while. Most of the things he recites, and some of the 
things he reads aloud, have very little interest for him. When he 
recites, he recites to the teacher, and much of what he says is lost 
to the pupils who sit behind him. When he reads, he reads to the 
teacher with the audience behind his back ; or, if he stands in front 
of the room, he reads to an audience whose every eye is following 
the words he is reading. Since he is conscious of no real need to 
speak clearly and distinctly, that his fellow pupils may hear, he 
does not take the trouble to do so. 

(5) The school has perpetually to fight the bad influence of 
the language environment in which many pupils spend their out- 
of -school hours. 

(6) The school makes the mistake of thinking it can correct 
bad habits of speech by the application of the rules of grammar. 
The ability to talk correctly comes from practice and not from the 
study of rules. The speech of children and of grown people is 
full of errors because they have not formed the habit of talking cor- 
rectly. There is a big difference between knowing how to do a 
thing and doing it. It is not mere knowledge, but habit, that we 
want. Pupils may knoiv the right form and out of two forms pre- 
sented to them by the teacher, one right and one wrong, invari- 



SPOKEN ENGLISH 5 

ably name the right form. Yet in the very next recitation they 
will use the very form which they condemned a moment before. 
Most teachers have heard the old story of Johnny and the past 
participle of the verb "to go" ; how the teacher punished him for 
repeated offenses by requiring him to stay after school and write 
"I have gone" fifty times; how upon the completion of the 
task (in the absence of his teacher from the room) he wrote at 

the bottom of his paper : "Dear Miss , I have wrote 'I have 

gone' 50 times and I have went home." Habits of years can- 
not be rooted up in a minute. To get a habit thoroughly rooted 
in a child's life takes careful drill and constant repetition. The 
errors of speech cannot be corrected by writing the correct form. 
It must be said and heard over and over again, until the ear be- 
comes accustomed to it and accepts it in place of the wrong form 
which it had before accepted as the right one. 

These matters receive attention, over and over again, in the 
pages that follow. It is not thought necessary at this time to do 
more than state them. 

An effective course in oral composition should include the 
following essential things : 

(1) Much opportunity for free self-expression. 

(2) Constant attention to matters of voice, enunciation, 
pronunciation, and inflection. 

(3) The training of children, by constant practice^ to com- 
pose oral paragraphs upon simple themes, and the develop- 
ment, through these, of some elementary skill in selecting, 
arranging, and expressing their ideas. 

(4) Unremitting efforts in all grades to eliminate the com- 
mon errors of speech. 

(1) The child's free self-expression is developed best by draw- 
ing upon his own personal experience. That is what the youngest 



6 SPEAKING AND WAITING ENGLISH 

pupil knows best and can talk about best. Reproduction has to 
do largely with what lies outside of the personal experiences of 
children, with things that they do not really know. Memory is 
the principal factor here. Experience has little to do with it. It 
is, therefore, the least profitable field for children's free expres- 
sion, and should be sparingly used. 

(2) The "schoolroom voice" has long been a term of reproach. 
Teachers may not be able to improve the quality of their pupils' 
voices, but they can do a great deal toward getting pupils to speak 
in an easy and natural tone of voice, which will still be audible not 
only to the teacher, but also to the pupils in all parts of the room. 
In addition, constant attention should be given, day in and day 
out, to matters of clear articulation, correct pronunciation, and 
right inflection. By making the conditions of the recitation such 
that the pupils get the feeling that they are actually talking to 
one another with the intention of imparting information, or opin- 
ions, and not merely "reciting" to the teacher to prove they have 
learned their lessons, the speech of children would greatly improve 
in these respects. But no matter how favorable to good talking 
the schoolroom conditions are made, pupils ought to have through- 
out the entire course systematic training through special exercises. 

In an appendix will be found lists of some of the most common 
defects in the enunciation of children and some exercises designed 
to remove them. The exercises printed there are meant only to 
be suggestive. Teachers will doubtless be able to supplement 
them by many others of their own. There is, however, enough 
material in the printed drills, if they are diligently used, to turn in 
the right direction the careless tendency so manifest in the speech 
habits of children. 

(3) Oral composition, as the term is used in this course of study, 
means a great deal more than ordinary talking or conversation, 
which as often as not is fragmentary and disconnected. By oral 
composition is meant a body of connected speech, large enough in 
scope to demand attention to its structure and form. All the quali- 



SPOKEN ENGLISH 7 

ties that are to be developed in the written composition may be, 
and ought to be, developed first in the oral exercise : choice and 
variety of words, quality and variety of sentences, and arrangement 
of sentences in a paragraph. This development will, of course, 
be slow and gradual. But there will be no improvement at all 
unless children are habituated from the first to be critical of their 
spoken English, in so far, at least, as the more flagrant mistakes 
in syntax are concerned, and the more fundamental matters of 
sentence structure and use of connectives. 

This course of study provides for much practice in composing 
oral paragraphs and gives many suggestions for teaching children 
how to acquire the art of developing interesting oral themes on 
subjects within the range of their interests and experience. Nu- 
merous examples of oral compositions, drawn from the actual 
work of pupils, are given under every grade. 

(4) The habit of correct speech cannot be gained from a study 
of grammar. Good habits or bad habits of speech are pretty well 
fixed before the child studies grammar and before he could possibly 
derive any benefit from a study of it. Good English is mastered 
by practice, not by rule. It is of little use for the children to know 
principles or rules. They may spend a week learning the rules 
for the agreement of the verb with its subject, but rules will not 
prevent them from saying "he don't." But if they are made 
to repeat "he doesn't," "he doesn't," "he doesn't," alone or in 
concert, in as many sentences as can be made by talking as fast 
as they can for five or ten minutes, the correct form will finally 
begin to sound right. It is not knowledge, but habit, that counts 
in speech. 

In this course of study an attempt has been made to allot to 
each grade a number of common errors for correction. Naturally 
such a distribution is more or less arbitrary. That certain errors 
of speech are listed under one grade and not under another does 
not imply a failure to realize that all of the errors are committed 
by pupils in all the grades, or that the correction of them in one 



8 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

grade will make it unnecessary to fight against the same errors in 
succeeding grades. The chief object of allotting the correction of 
certain errors to certain grades and that of certain other errors to 
other grades is to focus the attention of both teachers and pupils 
upon a relatively few points, for which they will be held account- 
able. 

The "language game" has been found to be one of the most 
effective methods for teaching right forms of speech, particularly 
in the primary grades. By means of these the child is brought 
frequently to use the correct forms in a natural manner and under 
conditions which appeal strongly to him. In an appendix a num- 
ber of these games will be found, prefaced by an interesting analy- 
sis of the common errors of children's speech, based upon a sys- 
tematic study conducted by the teachers of a city school system 
during the whole of a school year. 

WRITTEN ENGLISH 
IN GENERAL 

When the pupil comes to put on paper what he has to say, 
the situation becomes complicated by the entrance of factors 
which were not present when he was expressing himself orally. 
He must think about his penmanship. He must watch his spell- 
ing. He must look out for his capitals, his punctuation, his in- 
dentions, and all that. These things become automatic, or nearly 
so, after years of training and practice; so that educated men 
and women are required to give little or no thought to their pen- 
manship, spelling, punctuation, and the other technicalities of 
written expression. But the child is at first obliged to think of 
all these things all of the time. By degrees, however, with rea- 
sonably good instruction and suflBcient practice of the right kind, 
the observance of the simpler requirements of written technique 
becomes habitual to him, so that by the time the pupil has com- 
pleted the elementary school course, he ought to be fairly free 



WRITTEN ENGLISH 9 

from the necessity of giving conscious attention to the mechanics 
of written language. 

Added to the mechanical difficulties of written expression, there 
is present, also, at the moment of writing, a self -consciousness 
which tends to check the spontaneity which characterizes his 
oral efforts. In the case of children this is no doubt partly due 
to the demands made upon them by the technique of written ex- 
pression (penmanship, spelling, capitals, punctuation, and so on), 
all of which, because they have not yet become matters of es- 
tablished habit, are a constant drain upon their attention, and 
act like brakes upon the relatively free and easy delivery of their 
ideas which characterizes their spoken language. Thought has 
a stronger and closer association with speech than with writing ; 
and even adults, whose penmanship and spelling and punctuation 
have become matters of second nature, requiring no conscious at- 
tention during the process of composition, find their expression 
slowing down the moment they put pen to paper. Written ex- 
pression is of its very nature slower, more deliberate, more care- 
ful, and, therefore, more productive of self -consciousness than oral 
expression. But with children it is probably true that the chief 
difficulty which written language at first presents over oral lan- 
guage is the attention which has to be given to the technicalities 
of writing, the penmanship, the spelling, the punctuation, the use 
of capitals, and matters pertaining to the arrangement of the 
composition on the paper. 

Strictly speaking, penmanship and spelling are not matters 
of language technique at all, since they are not developed pri- 
marily through written language. The school program provides 
separate drill for both. The failure to use capitals correctly and 
the simpler marks of punctuation (the period and the comma) 
is accounted for not so much by the supposition that these things 
are difficult in themselves as it is explained by the lack of careful 
training in oral language. The child who is trained from the 
first to speak in clear-cut sentences will after a while acquire such 



10 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

a strong sentence sense that he will seldom, if ever, write as a 
sentence a group of words that is not a sentence. Pupils write 
in the classroom as they have been accustomed to talk in the class- 
room. Failure to use capitals and periods in written composition 
is largely due to bad oral habits. If children do not possess the 
sentence sense, their written work is sure to contain many omis- 
sions of capitals and periods, and consequently many misuses of 
the comma. The teaching of written language, so far as correctness 
goes, offers but few difficulties over and above those which are 
met with in the teaching of oral language. 

There is, of course, more than mechanical correctness to be 
sought in written composition. There must, in addition, be some 
attention paid in the upper grades to sentence structure and to 
some of the other rudiments of style. For this purpose, the 
careful and deliberate written exercise, giving opportunity for 
thought, for studied revision, and finished workmanship, is a 
more effective vehicle of instruction than the oral exercise, which 
must of necessity be less thoughtful and structurally less excel- 
lent. Still, the teacher should never forget that the basis of all good 
written work is laid in good oral work, and that if oral work is neglected 
her efforts to produce good written language will be in vain. 

Written composition, then, so far as the mechanics of writ- 
ing is concerned, does not offer so many difficulties as the teacher 
has been inclined to attribute to it. But the few things that are 
required in the way of written technicalities must be mastered as 
early as possible in the course, so that these difficulties will not 
stand too long in the way of the freedom and spontaneity of the 
child's expression. So long as his attention is distracted from the 
thought of what he wants to say by thinking of his penmanship, 
his spelling, his punctuation, and similar matters of written 
technique, his composition is likely to be formal and meager and 
uninteresting. On the other hand, it would be folly to attempt 
to cultivate freedom of expression by allowing children to write 
regardless of the rules of punctuation, spelling, arrangement, and 



ONE-PARAGRAPH COMPOSITIONS 11 

the like. These matters of written technique (and we are deal- 
ing with only the simplest items of them in this course of study) 
should not, during the process of writing, hold the center of con- 
sciousness. They should occupy only the '* margin" of con- 
sciousness, as we say. But before they can be safely relegated to 
the margin, they must first have occupied the center of conscious- 
ness for some time. Children do not possess intuitively habits 
of correct written expression. These must be built up from the 
day that written language is begun in the second grade. The 
important thing, and the difficult thing, is to give sufficient drill 
on the mechanics of written composition, without killing the 
child's spontaneity and his freedom of expression. Drill on the 
mechanics of written composition there must be, from the very 
start. At the same time, the teacher must be extremely cautious 
not to let her insistence upon correct form kill the child's desire 
for self-expression. Form must be taught, and in the process con- 
tent must not be sacrificed. This is a task that calls for all the 
wisdom and all the ingenuity of the teacher. It is the real test 
of the good teacher of composition. 

ONE-PARAGRAPH COMPOSITIONS 

At the outset of this discussion the statement was made that 
the lack of a clear and definite limitation of the language work in 
the grades below the high school has been responsible for a great 
deal of the ineffectiveness of our teaching, and the following gen- 
eral standard was there set up as a reasonable measure of at- 
tainment in written composition for the ordinary graduate of 
an ordinary grammar school : 

" The ability to write with fair facility an original paragraph 
upon a subject within the range of his experience or his interests, 
using sentences grammatically complete and correctly punctuated, 
with correct spelling, and free from grievous grammatical mis- 
takes''' 



12 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

This standard has the merit of being tolerably definite and 
reasonably possible of attainment. Later on in the course of 
study, under assignment of work by grades, there will be found 
paragraphs written by children, which have been adopted as 
tentative standards for the different grades. 

The chief reason for limiting the written exercise to a single 
paragraph is to assure sufficient practice in writing which a longer 
composition makes impossible, and to focus the attention of both 
pupil and teacher upon the smallest possible language field. In 
addition to the opportunity it affords for practice, the single para- 
graph is admirably suited to the purposes of teaching elementary 
composition. It is a complete unit, a whole composition in mini- 
ature. It gives free range to development of sentence structure. 
It may illustrate all the forms of discourse : narration, descrip- 
tion, exposition, argument, as the four chief kinds of writing are 
technically known. It is subject to all the laws of discourse. 
By its use the child gains a practical knowledge of every important 
feature of literary workmanship. The child need not be conscious 
of these things. But the teacher should think of them all the 
time. 

The children in the lower grades will not, of course, be ex- 
pected to produce a paragraph. In the first grade, children will 
make a sentence or two with alphabet cards, first from sentences 
written on the board by the teacher, and later will construct one 
or two original sentences, based mostly on their reading lessons. 
By the time the pupil has reached the third grade he will be taught 
to cast his sentences into the form of a paragraph. This paragraph 
will at first be short and simple. It will grow in length and in 
organization of thought during each succeeding year of the ele- 
mentary school course. But in the highest grade it should not 
exceed seven or eight sentences. 



IMPORTANCE OF SHORT PARAGRAPH 13 

THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE PARAGRAPH 

SHORT 

If you count the number of sentences in the eighth-grade "stand- 
ard" paragraphs printed in this Course of Study (see pp. 143- 
145) you will find that it in no case exceeds seven. Some of the 
paragraphs contain only five sentences. From five to seven fairly 
formed sentences are enough for the sort of eighth-grade paragraph 
we should attempt to train our pupils to write. Teachers must 
rid themselves of the mistaken notion that a seven-sentence para- 
graph does not give sufficient room for a grammar school child 
to write something interesting. A paragraph does not need to 
be long in order to be interesting. There is really no relation be- 
tween the length of a composition and the degree of its interest. 
It would be interesting to know how many teachers are getting 
longer paragraphs that possess the directness, the simplicity, 
and the genuine childish feeling exhibited in the examples of oral 
and written paragraphs printed in this book. The writer has read 
ten thousand one-paragraph compositions in the last two years, 
and has invariably found the most interesting ones among the 
short, pointed, spirited paragraphs on some bit of childish ex- 
perience. 

It is not a question of whether children can be trained to write 
longer paragraphs or compositions of more than one paragraph, 
although no large proportion of the teachers of the country have 
yet demonstrated that it can be done. The writer believes that 
even if it were possible to train all the children in the grammar 
grades to write a long composition and write it well, it would 
be a waste of time to do it. When half the pupils in every school 
system in the country can write as good paragraphs as those 
printed in this book as "standards" for the different grades, it 
will be time to look around for more worlds to conquer. 



14 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

SUBJECTS SHOULD BE PERSONAL, DEFINITE, AND 

BRIEF 

A good subject is half the battle. Children cannot be expected 
to write upon a subject about which they know little and care 
less. You cannot get blood out of a turnip. 

Subjects should be chosen within the range of the pupil's knowl- 
edge and interests. Children like best what they know most 
about, and they love to write when they know what they are 
writing about. There is all the difference in the world between 
"having to say something and having something to say." 

Knowledge and interest, therefore, are necessary conditions for 
good work in composition. Children's lives are crowded with in- 
cidents ; they have plenty of ideas and opinions which they are 
eager to express. Every child who is not feeble-minded has some- 
thing worth saying if he is given a decent chance to say it. From 
their life at home, in the streets, in school; from their sports, 
amusements, duties, tasks; from the things they have seen and 
heard and felt and done ; from the things they read and the things 
they imagine, — from all these may be drawn an almost endless 
variety of subjects, full of the breath of life and the actuality of 
experience. 

Some children, of course, are less keen in their observation than 
others, and all children need to have their eyes opened and their 
wits sharpened to see interesting themes in the incidents and 
experiences which make up their daily life. To teach children to 
observe closely and to think clearly and consecutively is one of 
the chief values of training in composition. In handling sub- 
jects drawn from everyday life there will be need at first for the 
teacher to exercise skill in keeping the children's compositions 
from becoming trite and trivial. This she can do by training 
children to discover interest in common things, and by suggesting 
a live manner of treatment. Nothing in the world is common- 
place unless we make it^ so. 



SUBJECTS SHOULD BE PERSONAL 15 

Besides being personal, subjects should be definite and brief. 
"How I Spent My Vacation" is concrete and personal; but it 
lacks the second essential of a good subject : it is neither definite 
nor brief. It is impossible for any child to write in an interesting 
manner upon such a subject within the limits of a single paragraph. 
At best, it can be no more than a bare catalogue of events. Within 
the compass of any vacation, long or short, there are a score of in- 
cidents and experiences exactly suitable for narrating or describing 
in the written paragraph, because they give opportunity for strik- 
ing and vivid detail; but to ask a child to set down in a single 
paragraph the doings of a whole vacation is to foredoom him to 
failure. The subject of ''Birds" is another example of the too 
large topic. It has the quality of being concrete, and if the 
pupil to whom it is assigned knows something of birds at first 
hand, it has for him also the quality of being personal. But 
what child, no matter how well he knows the birds, can put any- 
thing of himself into a single paragraph on the general subject of 
" Birds " ? "The Oriole's Nest," on the other hand, offers a specific 
theme for his knowledge, and he can treat it adequately in an or- 
dinary paragraph. Better even than "The Oriole's Nest" would 
be a single phase of that interesting bit of bird life, — such as the 
location of the nest, or its architecture, or its special adaptation to 
the use of this bird of the golden plumage and the golden voice. 
A child's paragraph on "A Trip on a Trolley Car" is not likely to 
produce much beyond a record of routes and running time. If, 
instead, the pupil should write a paragraph describing a Sunday 
school party starting out in the morning for a picnic, and a com- 
panion paragraph about the same party's return from the picnic 
at night, hot, tired, limp, and generally out of sorts, he would 
stand a vastly better chance of writing something worth while. 

Children must be taught, therefore, to narrow their subjects. This 
focuses thinking, and establishes a single point of view. They must 
be trained to single out some particular point, and work that up 
for all it is worth. Unless this is done, children will inevitably 



16 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

write paragraphs that contain a Httle of everything and nothing 
much of anything. 

The following are by no means extreme examples of the "scatter- 
ing" type of paragraph : 

Last Sunday my mother and I decided to Canobie Lake. We 
reached the lake half past eleven. As dinner time approached, we 
ate our lunch. About two o'clock we went into the show. As we 
wanted to reach home for supper we went out of the theater half 
past four. While waiting for the car a thunder storm arose. It 
lasted three quarters of an hour and half past five we took the car 
for Lawrence. We reached home just in time for supper. 

One afternoon about two o'clock I heard the fire alarm ring. I 
followed the fire engines until they stopped at a three-story house 
on Valley Street, in the Italian district. They quickly extinguished 
a slight chimney fire, and the "all out" was sounded. As I was 
coming over the carbridge hill, I saw a large touring car run into 
a coal-wagon. The driver of the coal-wagon was seriously injured, 
and the automobile was damaged to a great extent. As I was about 
to get on my bicycle again I noticed that a piece of glass from the 
broken wind-shield of the auto had stuck in the tire and punctured 
it. I was obliged to walk home, and in all thought it was a very 
eventful afternoon. 

The following pair of compositions, written upon the same sub- 
ject by two pupils in the same room, illustrate very effectively the 
difference between the paragraph that covers too much ground 
and the one that selects a single point for "elaboration" : 

FIELD DAY 

On Wednesday afternoon the pupils of our school were to line up 
by sixes in front of the building. We marched from the school to 
Riverside Park. Each school had the first letter of the school on top 
of the bleachers. First thing we had to do was to salute the flag, 
then sing the "Star Spangled Banner." We had great fun up there 



GOOD AND BAD SUBJECTS 17 

cheering for our school. The events were as follows — running, 
dancing, basket ball, overhead ball, and many different folk dances, 
which were spoiled by the rain. There were only three more events 
and those were the 300-yard dash and potato race. 

FIELD DAY 

At the Field Day recently held at the baseball park for the gram- 
mar schools, I was particularly interested in a solo dance given by a 
girl of our school. Her dress, tied to her wrists by knots of pale blue 
ribbon, looked like great wings as she ran out. She did the dance 
exceedingly well and fully deserved the applause given her by her 
classmates and others. 

This point is discussed and illustrated more fully in the chapter 
on "The Single Phase Idea" (p. 26). 

GOOD AND BAD SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATED 

The subjects in the two columns below are typical of the kind 
that are not suitable to any kind of composition, and particularly 
not suitable to the one-paragraph composition which this scheme 
of composition aims to train children to write. 

Not Personal Too Large 

Lions. • The War. 

Bain. A Long Trip. 

The Cynic. v A Week's Enjoyment. 

Blossoms. An Eventful Day. 

The Weather. Last Vacation. 

Autumn. ' Field Day. 

The Pyramids. A Day in the Woods. 

In October. A Trip to Revere Beach. 

Disobedience. Week-ends in Camp. 

The Red, White, and Blue. 

Water. 

A Radiator. 

June. 



18 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

The topics in the left-hand column might have been copied from 
a composition book of forty years ago, when formalism ruled all 
school work, and when writing compositions was a question of 
"having to say something" instead of "having something to say." 
It was that sort of thing that killed composition then, and it 
will kill it now just as surely as it killed it then. 

Similarly, no child can possibly write an interesting paragraph 
on any such subject as those listed in the right-hand column. At 
best such a composition can be only a string of unrelated events. 
The too-large subject will be dealt with at some length in the suc- 
ceeding chapter. 

The following pairs of compositions show what a world of differ- 
ence there is between a composition written upon a subject personal 
to the child and one that is not personal. They are reproduced ex- 
actly as they were written. 

Pair No. 1. 

TO-DAY 

To-day it is raining. 
I have no coat. 
But I will not get wet. 
I have an umbrella. 

FLAG DAY 

To-day is Flag Day. 

The first flag was made by Betsy Ross. 

It was made June fourteen. 

It is not difficult to decide which of these two compositions is 
the more interesting. The little fellow in the first one is talking 
right out of his heart. It is genuine self-expression. If anybody 
is talking in the second one, it is the teacher. It certainly is not 
the child. The facts recited are perfectly true, but there is no self- 
expression in a statement of facts. Facts can be interpreted in a 
highly interesting way, but not by children. 



GOOD AND BAD SUBJECTS 19 

Pair No. 2 

CHILDREN'S DAY 

Sunday is children's day. We have to say many things. I will 
shever while I am saying them. 

THE BUTTERFLIES 

The butterflies are very pretty. They have wings of many 
colors. There are many different .kind of butterflies. 

Can there be any question as to which of the above children is 
being trained in self-expression.? The first child spells "shiver" 
wrong, but she is expressing an almost universal human experience, 
and a very poignant one. Most of us have " shevered " in the same 
way. The second one could hardly be more impersonal, if she were 
writing about the dodo. One has a right to wonder if she ever 
really saw a butterfly. 

Pair No. 3 

The Flower I like best is the Violet. There is three colors of 
them. There is the violet the white and the yeUow. 



A BASEBALL OUTFIT 

Last Saturday I sent away to Chicago for a mit, a mask, and 
a protector. I hope my outfit will come Saturday. When I get 
them I will dress up and see how I look. 

Here is another striking contrast. The violet person, one 
suspects, knows as little about flowers at first hand as she knows 
about grammar. But the boy who is waiting for that package to 
arrive from Sears Roebuck captures us from the start. 



20 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Pair No. 4 

HAVERHILL ROAD 

Haverhill Road is a very long one. On one side of the road is a 
car track. Along the other side many kinds of flowers grow. On 
Sunday there are many people walking on this road. 

A TENT 

Once I built a small tent. It was just big enough for myself. 
One day my brother squeezed in after me. The tent burst. 

In spite of the many people who walk on the Haverhill Road 
on Sundays there is hardly a human thing about the paragraph. 
The only thing not human in the second one is the use of "burst'* 
for "busted." 

Pair No. 5 
MY NEW DRESS 

My mamma is making me a new dress. 
It is blue. It has a lase ve at the neck. 

MY RIBBON 

I have a new ribbon. I have it on. 

My sister has one to. 

These two paragraphs show that it does not necessarily follow 
that the selection of a personal subject will in all cases result in an 
interesting composition. The chances of its being interesting are 
vastly increased by the choice of a subject that is personal. But, 
after that, the child has to learn to say what he has to say in a way 
that will interest others. The little girl who is going to have a new 
dress with a lace " V " at the neck interests us, — if, for nothing else, 



GOOD AND BAD SUBJECTS 21 

perhaps, because so few dresses nowadays have anything at the 
neck. She is going to "look lovely," we are sure, in her little blue 
dress. But the girl with the new ribbons gives us no chance to 
see anything or feel anything. She has just a new ribbon, and her 
sister has one 'Ho." What do we care about her sister ! 

Here are two upper grade compositions. Both tell, or pretend 
to tell, of an early summer morning. In the first one the sun is 
"shinning" (as usual) like a mass of gold, and the sky looks like 
an American flag, and the breeze is so very, very gentle that the 
giant trees feel compelled to bow down before it, and the birds 
sing their sweetest songs — and more bromide of that sort. The 
author, in spite of her raptures, is not a nature lover; she is a 
nature fakir. One has a right to doubt whether she ever gets up 
in the morning until she is called a second time. The other morning 
is a real morning. The paper has its faults. There is some exag- 
geration of language in it, as there is in the first one. But it is 
genuine self-expression. 

A SPRING MORNING 

As I look from my room window I could see that the beautiful 
. sun was shinning. It looked like one mass of gold away up in the 
sky out of everybody's reach. The white clouds sailing across the 
sky looked like great sailboats. The sky looked like the blue field 
in the American Flag and the clouds the stars. The air was so fresh 
and the breeze was so gentle and light. The trees looked like large 
giants bending in the breeze. The birds sang their morning song. 
Everything was so bright, calm, fresh and sweet. 

CIRCUS MORNING 

As the sun came up over the hills, I stealthily crept down the 
front stairs. I often realized that the steps creaked, but this morn- 
ing they seemed to creak all the louder. Of course, as I opened the 
front door, it had to make a long, drawn out shriek. I was glad 



22 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

when I reached the sidewalk, for I was afraid the folks would hear 
me. All went well after that, except the work. I reached the 
circus grounds, along with a few other boys. Then started the 
grewsome task of carrying water to the horses and elephants. But 
I was to be rewarded for my work, for as I made my way home, I 
had in my possession the coveted ticket to the gorgeous performance 
in the afternoon. 

A WORD ABOUT TITLES 

The title ought to indicate as pointedly as possible what the 
paragraph is about. The following are examples of titles that are 
too general and vague, or weak and wordy. 

Where I Went. • An Experience. 

What I Heard. A Walk. 

What I Did. A Description. 

What I Saw. The Book. 

What I Can See. My Friend. 

Where She Was. Where I Was Invited to Go. 

Sunday. Where I Went Friday Night. 

An Adventure. What There Should be in 

To-day. Every Room. 

My Trip. What My Aunt Has. 

Work. What Happened to My Dear 

The Tree. Loving Brother. 

A Soldier. Where I Went Last Year on 

To Boston. My Vacation. 

My Experience. 

A good title should be (1) brief, (2) to the point, and (3) at- 
tractive, — in the sense of arousing interest or anticipation or 
curiosity. Thus, '*We Have With us Tonight" is the very clever 
title of a book containing a selection of toasts, ready-made intro- 
ductions, stock after-dinner speeches, etc. Such a title as "A 
True Account of the Doings of Five Quadrupeds and Three Birds" 



GOOD AND BAD SUBJECTS 23 

would have killed the sale of one of Ernest Thompson Seton's best 
books. But he didn't name it that; he named it "Lives of the 
Hunted." 

Children cannot be expected to phrase titles skillfully without 
training, and I have serious doubts whether it would pay to spend 
the necessary time in such a "refinement" of our business. I 
question if any titles should be written in the primary grades. . It 
would seem wiser not to write any, than to write the kind that are 
commonly used. That it is possible for upper grade children to 
get the idea of phrasing titles effectively is shown by this list of 
twenty-three titles taken from the papers of a single class. 

Hired, Tired, and Fired. A Hasty Reply. 

Catching a Rat. From the Frying Pan Into the Fire. 

Mixing Tins. Cheated at the Circus. 

False Alarm. Taking Home my Report Card. 

Too Sure. "The Battle of Chicken Run." 

A Bad Shot. Act No. 13. 

In and Out. A Wet Seat. 

A Midnight Caller. A Breach of Promise. 

A Good Chase. Return Fire. 

Obedience Pays. The Fortune That Was Spent in 

"Safety First." a Day. 

An Unexpected Ducking. No Pie. 

My advice is not in any grade to waste time attempting to get 
over-smart titles. But we ought to take a little time to make our 
pupils see that the title is a very important part of their paragraphs, 
and worth thinking about just as carefully as the subject matter 
of their paragraphs. Most children in the upper grades do con- 
siderable thinking about what they are going to write. Let them, 
while they are doing this, also give thought to the selection and 
wording of the title. 



24 SPEAE3NG AND WRITING ENGLISH 

TEACHING PUPILS TO AVOID THE TRIVIAL AND THE 
SENSATIONAL IN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 

In a previous chapter the statement has been made that the 
child's power of self-expression is best developed by drawing 
upon his own personal experience. There is an almost unanimous 
agreement to-day upon this point among the most prominent 
students of the problem of elementary composition. Besides, 
there is a value in training children to talk and write upon subjects 
drawn from personal experience which surpasses that of mere 
training in self-expression, as will be pointed out in the course of 
this discussion. This more vital purpose, however, cannot be 
accomplished unless children are led to a better understanding 
than they ordinarily possess of what is meant by "personal expe- 
rience." Without this training, the "experiences" that children 
write about in their paragraphs are likely to be trivial and without 
point, or else they will abound in stories of accidents, collisions, 
runaways, frights, fights, fires, and other sensational subjects. 
It is perfectly natural, until they know better, for children to write 
on subjects of this sort. That is what they think of as "experi- 
ence." They do not yet know that, generally speaking, they do 
not really "experience" such things at all, but merely "observe" 
them. The "experience" is not the occurrence. The "experi- 
ence" is the effect upon the person witnessing or participating in 
a situation. Children at first are not affected by anything but the 
obvious, the striking, the sensational. Unless something hits 
them squarely between the eyes, they do not see it. This is per- 
fectly natural, and we must not expect little children at first to see 
subject matter for their paragraphs in the more subjective experi- 
ences of life. Their lives and thinking are objective to a large de- 
gree. Still, it is our business to lead them gradually, so far as their 
capacity to understand may give us warrant to do so, away from the 
strictly "objective" experience to one more "subjective" in 
nature. Older people do not need to see a runaway or a rescue 



AVOID THE TRIVIAL AND SENSATIONAL 25 

from a burning house to be furnished material for a paragraph. 
They see a "story" in the faces of people they meet in the street. 
That is because they not only see things with their eyes, but have 
learned to interpret what they see in terms of human life. They 
are able to distinguish the one bit of vital significance — of uni- 
versal meaning — in what they see ; all the other elements they dis- 
regard as non-essentials. Children are not able to do this, and 
most of them will never be able to do it if they are not earlier in 
life taught the habit of looking not only at things, but through 
things. Too many people go through life with their eyes shut. 
Few of them see what they look at. Still fewer of them think about 
what they see. 

There is a purpose in this training of children to observe, to think, 
and to reflect upon their common everyday experience which goes 
deeper than mere training in self-expression and in the mastery of 
the fundamentals of written technique. There is a value to it 
higher even than that of training children to think clearly and con- 
secutively, which is commonly held to be the chief end of language 
teaching. This purpose is to teach the child through constant 
observation and reflection to become acquainted with himself, to 
learn to measure the breadth and the value of his own life, to add 
to his own life the beauty and the significance of life around him, 
which he has never seen save as a blur. It is, in a word, to help 
him to have life more abundantly. 

This training is of necessity a very slow process, and no more than 
the beginnings of it can be expected in the grammar school. A 
good way to begin is to encourage pupils to select subjects into 
which they can put a little of their own thinking, opinions, and 
judgments. One sentence expressing the pupil's personal feeling 
— his reaction upon some "experience" — is worth a dozen that 
merely narrate the details of some occurrence. Children do have 
personal impressions and opinions. They have their own ideas 
about persons and things. (Their honest views of many of our 
school practices would, for example, be interesting, and no doubt 



26 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

profitable, reading.) Instead of writing about things that happen 
to others, let them write about the things that happen to them- 
selves — not about cut fingers, or broken arms, but about their 
interests, wishes, hopes, discouragements, disappointments, suc- 
cesses, failures, ambitions, aspirations, likes, dislikes, cares, troubles, 
difficulties, rewards, punishments, satisfactions, regrets, resolves, 
— and the thousand and one other things that children experience 
every day of their lives and quite as poignantly as grown-up 
people do. 



THE *' SINGLE PHASE IDEA" 

Besides being personal^ subjects should be brief. That is, they 
should be subjects about which children can write something in- 
teresting within the limits of a paragraph as short as the "stand- 
ard paragraphs" for the different grades. This means that only a 
single phase of a subject can be presented in any one paragraph at 
any one time. 

This principle of the "single phase" is fundamental to the scheme 
of paragraph writing laid down in this Course of Study. It is 
highly important, therefore, that teachers should from the earliest 
years seek to train children, day in and day out, to select a single 
phase of a subject for "elaboration" in their paragraphs, instead 
of permitting them to spread themselves out thin, as they are sure 
to do in the absence of careful, persistent effort upon the part of 
teachers, over all the things, near or remote, that may suggest 
themselves in connection with a chosen subject. The best of 
teaching probably cannot prevent some pupils of every class, even 
after they have selected a properly "narrowed" subject, from in- 
troducing irrelevant details into their paragraphs. But most 
children, if the training is begun early enough and persevered in 
long enough, can be made to understand the principle of the " single 
phase" and observe it habitually in their paragraph writing. 



THE "SINGLE PHASE IDEA" 27 

The single phase idea is only another name for the paragraph 
sense. And the paragraph sense is as vital to effective organiza- 
tion of thought in a group of sentences as the sentence sense is vital 
to the correct expression of single units of thought. The teacher 
who can get both these things into the consciousness of her pupils 
has a clear road before her for the teaching of the things that most 
teachers never have time to reach, because they are never able to 
extricate themselves from the confusion of bad sentences and of 
rambling, disconnected thinking. 

The compositions that follow will serve, better than any amount 
of discussion, to show just what is meant by the lack of the single 
phase, — the failure of the writers to select a single point, capable 
of interesting development in a short paragraph. 

In some of the lower-grade compositions shown here the lack 
of the single phase may not be so noticeable as in the longer upper 
grade compositions. The defect is, nevertheless, present in these 
compositions, as a little closer study of them will reveal. The 
habit of choosing just one thing to write about cannot be established 
too early. If pupils in the lower grades are trained right in this 
respect, the trouble will not have to be remedied when these same 
pupils reach the higher grades. 

These compositions are reproduced exactly from the originals. 



PARAGRAPHS LACKING THE "SINGLE PHASE" QUALITY 

(Second Grade) 

Yesterday I went up the farm 

I went in the car 

The car was going fast 

We saw bird in the apple tree 

My father mild the cow 

I fed the chicks 



28 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

(Second Grade) 

I write and read in school. 

There is a yard in back of the school. 

We do number in school 

There are pictures in school. 

(Third Grade) 

I have a doll. I make all the dresses for har. She has a pink 
silk dress. My mother made a white hamburg bonnet for her. 
Our baby tries to pull her eye lashes. 

THIS NOONTIME 

(Fourth Grade) 

This noontime after I ate my dinner then I cleared off the 
table. Then I asked my mother if I could go out so I went out. 
When I was out I asked Mary* what was the matter. She said her 
ruler was down the crack. 

PICKING CLOVER 

(Fourth Grade) 

Last night after school I went up to see my grandma. After 
that I met my sister going home from school so I went home with 
her. When we got to the bottom of the hill we saw Greta and her 
sister picking clover. My sister said come on and see if we can get 
some four leafed clover. We could find many three leafed clovers 
but no two or four. 

MY PET RABBET 

(Fifth Grade) 

I bought a rabbet named Nick. When I go to feed him he 
comes to me as if he never was fed in the morning. He is a black 
Rabbet. When my brother goes to feed him he will not go to him 



THE "SINGLE PHASE IDEA" 29 

and I have to give it to him. I built him a house I painted the 
house red. It is a very big house. He dug a hole in the ground 
to get out. 

A PLEASANT SUNDAY 

(Seventh Grade) 

Getting into the automobile we were soon on our way to Revere. 
Arriving there we were surprised to see an aroplane flying through 
the air. Following it to Marblehead I had the excitement of seeing 
it come down and stop. The flyer was very large and also very in- 
teresting to look at. At last after looking at it for a long time we 
started to go back to Revere. Just as we came to the first arch they 
were lit, and to me it looked like fairyland. 

AN ACCIDENT 

(Seventh Grade) 

The boy has the foot ball and is running down the field. As I 
was on the other side playing against this boy, I tried to tackel 
him by the legs. As I did I fell and he and all the others fall on 
top. My wrist was over a hole. When one of them fell on my arm, 
I had felt a shock go in through my arm, and when I got up my 
wrist was broken. Then one of the older boys pulled it as hard as 
he could. I went home and my mother sent for the doctor but he 
did not come for an hour after. But he came and tended to it. 
Then for three nights I could not sleep at all. Just a week before 
this the boy next house to mine had broken his right arm. While 
my left wrist was broken. We went to the show one day and every 
one looked at us because his right arm was brok and my left wrist 
was. 

GOOD EXAMPLES OF "THE SINGLE PHASE" QUALITY 

The following compositions show, by contrast with the foregoing, 
how much more of interest, of vividness, and of the "personal 



80 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

touch" there is in the paragraph wholly given up to a narration or 
description or a discussion of some single thing, which has somehow 
or other appealed to the child's interest and given him a desire to 
tell about it. At the same time they illustrate the point dis- 
cussed in a foregoing chapter as one of the things we should work 
for — the paragraph into which the child puts a little of his own 
feeling or thinking. They are not free from minor defects. But 
as examples of the brief, pointed, personal paragraph that we are 
seeking to develop through our teaching of composition they are 
entirely satisfactory. Every one is printed exactly as it was 

written. 

(Second Grade) 

On the farm a man has a rabbit. I feed the rabbit with clover. 
I like to watch the rabbits nose when it eats. 

(Second Grade) 

When I was on the farm I saw a big dog. I tried to sit on 
his back but he bent down and made me slide off. I had a lot of 
fun with him. 

(Second Grade) 

I have new dress. 

It buttons in the back. 

It is hard to button. 

My aunt helps me to button it. 

(Third Grade) 

Yesterday was my little brother's birthday. I bought him a 
presant of a ring. He said he would rather have had a pie. 

MY DOLL 

(Fourth Grade) 

At the fair my brother won a doll. It is dressed like a nurse. 
She has a white cap with a Red cross on it. If she was real she 
would help the sick people. 



THE "SINGLE PHASE IDEA" 31 

RIGGING A ELECTRIC LIGHT 

(Fifth Grade) 

In my room I rigged up a electric light. I saved up seventy 
cents, and bought a battery, bulb, a switch and some wire. Every 
night I light it. It works as good as a large one. 

THE ROBIN FAMILY 

(Fifth Grade) 

In the top most bow of our biggest cherry tree there is a rob- 
bins nest. Yesterday the mother coaxed two babies out of the nest. 
They could not fly more than a foot high. All morning they sat in 
lowest branch of the little cherry tree. Mother would not let me 
cage them for fear they would die. 

A STRUGGLE FOR FOOD AND LIFE 

(Sixth Grade) 

One day a robin flew down from a tree to the ground. It was 
trying to pull a worm out of its home. The worm was fighting for 
its life and the robin for its food. They struggled for quit a 
while. Then a men walking by frightened the robin and it flew 
away. 

THE VISITOR 
(Sixth Grade) 

In our schoolroom we had a visitor. She came from East Boston. 
It was yesterday afternoon she paid us the visit. I think she is a 
teacher. This thought came to me because she seemed to be particu- 
larly interested in our language stories. She may have come to see 
if we could do better work than her pupils. 

SOMETHING UNDISCOVERED 

(Sixth Grade) 

I wonder why the janitor drops his brushes. There are sev- 
eral reasons but I think he wants to let us know he is sweeping. 



3^ SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Why he does it I do not know but I wish he would stop because 
it distracts our attention from our lessons. 



WAITING FOR THE NO-SESSION BELL 

(Seventh Grade) 

On a rainy afternoon in November I watched a crowd of boys 
who were standing near the engine house of Park street, waiting 
for the no-session bell to ring. At the stroke of one, two bells pealed 
out loudly three times in succession. A chorus of shouts from the 
boys proclaimed their joy. Then, after some lively pushing and 
jumping, they scampered off in all directions. 

CARD DAY 

(Seventh Grade) 

It was almost a quarter of four when a small boy came into 
school-room carrying a bundle of cards. These reports are sent 
home to let the parents of the pupils know how they have behaved 
during the past month and how well they have done their work. 
While the cards were being distributed the pupils looked anxiously 
about. In a few minutes some of them began to smile while others 
looked very blue indeed. 

THE HOUSE IN WHICH I WAS BORN 

(Seventh Grade) 

The house in which I was born still stands on Union St. When 
we lived there we kept it as. clean as we could. The people that live 
there now are foreigners and are untidy. The garden I kept is now 
destroyed. The hinges upon which the blinds rested are now broken. 
An old mattress is lying under the steps. It makes me feel sorry to 
see the house in which I was born so untidy. 



THE "SINGLE PHASE IDEA" S 

TICKET SELLING 

(Seventh Grade) 

"No, I don't think I can go. But if I do, I will get my ticket 
of you" was a very polite refusal given to me by one of my friends. 
Another was, "Don't bother me, I am too busy." Why is it that 
people can't be polite ? It wouldn't have hurt the second one to be 
a little more courteous. I have learned one lesson and that was 
from selling tickets. It is this ; one can never be too polite or too 
courteous. 

WHAT BECAME OF MY NICKEL 

(Eighth Grade) 

While I was walking along Lawrence St., I happened to see a 
nickel in the gutter. I picked it up and examined it, and found that 
it was good. Seeing a candy store on one side and an Ice-Cream 
Parlor on the other, I did not know what to buy. I determined to 
toss up the nickel, and if it came down on heads, I would buy candy, 
and if it came down on tails, I would buy ice cream. I tossed it 
up, and to my surprise it rolled out in the street and went down 
the sewer. 

OUR ADVENTURES AT THE BIRCHES 

(Eighth Grade) 

"Come on fellows, lets go over to the meadow and ride the 
birches !" called my chum. No sooner said than done. When we 
got there we found some other fellows had the trees. We chased 
them off and got into the trees ourselves. Pretty soon we saw a 
crowd of boys coming toward us, and with them the boys we had run 
off. Then we knew we were in for it. But we only climbed farther 
out on the limbs. When they climbed the trees we droped to the 
ground and beat it home on the double-quick. 



34 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

AN INCIDENT 

(Eighth Grade) 

Upon passing a short alley a few sharp whacks of a whip 
reached my ear. Looking toward the direction from when they came 
I was astonished to see a man holding a whip in his uplifted hand 
and about to lay it unmercifully across the back of his horse. A 
large crowd soon gathered and amongst it the driver spied a police- 
man. Immediately he dropped the whip to the ground and began 
patting the horse on the head. After a sound scolding from the 
officer, and also a threat that he would be arrested if he was found 
acting that way again, the man rode away and the crowd dispersed. 

This point has been dwelt upon at considerable length because 
I believe the success of the one-paragraph scheme of composition 
depends upon our ability to teach children habitually to observe 
it in their paragraph writing. If the one-paragraph composition 
\vere to be conceived as meaning no more than the writing of six 
or seven off-hand sentences about a subject (upon which, if pupils 
were allowed to do so, they could easily write twice as many sen- 
tences) without any particular thought of organization, it might 
well be open to the criticism of setting up as a maximum of com- 
position a fragmentary and unorganized collection of sentences. 
If, on the other hand, the idea of a one-paragraph composition is 
merely to omit indentions and crowd into a single paragraph what 
pupils formerly were taught to distribute among several paragraphs, 
the plan would be open to still more serious objections. 

It is the careful organization of the pupil's thought around a 
single central theme, by means of which a simple, short paragraph 
becomes a complete and satisfying unit of self-expression, which 
makes the one-paragraph maximum scheme of composition logical 
and complete, and in all ways sufficient for the purpose of elemen- 
tary language training. 



STARTING PARAGRAPH RIGHT 35 

STARTING THE PARAGRAPH RIGHT 

Devices are dangerous, for the reason that often they are so 
overworked or so mechanically applied by teachers that the pupil's 
naturalness and spontaneity are destroyed, and the second state 
of the child becomes worse than the first. 

One suggestion, however, has been used so successfully with 
grammar grade pupils that it is given here. Briefly, the sugges- 
tion is that pupils be gradually trained to compose a beginning 
sentence that will lay the essential foundation of the whole paragraph 
— a sentence that gives the young writer something definite to 
handle, something specific to say ; something, as it were, to prove. 

An examination of faulty paragraphs from the standpoint of 
unity — of the single phase — shows most of them to lack a begin- 
ning sentence containing a statement which can be expanded, de- 
veloped, and proved. Here are a few beginning sentences taken at 
random from children's paragraphs. 

. "Last Saturday my brother and I went fishing." 
"Saturday afternoon my friend Edith and her cousin and I 
thought we would go for a walk." 

"Last Sunday we went to Franklin Park." 

"A few days ago my aunt and I went to Salem." 

"We started out at five o'clock in the morning." 

"One day I went to a farm in West Andover." 

"One day it was raining very hard." 

"Every summer my friends and I go camping." 

"Last year I went to Canobie Lake." 

Sentences like these give no real clue to what is to follow in the 
paragraph. They suggest anything, nothing. They do not 
arouse interest nor curiosity nor expectation. Look at the first 
of these sentences : ''Last Saturday my brother and I went fishing." 
That is a mere statement of fact, which may or may not lead to 
something worth while. Usually it takes two or three more 



36 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

sentences of as blank a character to get the writer to the place 
where he really tells something. Now suppose we change that 
beginning sentence into one like this : "My brother and I had great 
luck fishing last Saturday.'^ In such a sentence the writer has his 
work cut out for him, he has something definite to narrate, or, as 
we say in geometry, to prove. He will then not waste half of his 
paragraph getting down to the thing he has in mind to tell. Or, 
take the fourth sentence : ''A few days ago my aunt and I went to 
Salem.'" Here, again, no hint is given as to what particular item 
of interest connected with Salem the pupil is going to relate. 
Suppose, instead, the pupil had begun, " The Peabody Institute in 

Salem has a most interesting collection of ," or ''The House 

of the Seven Gables is one of the most famous of the old houses in 
Salem," or '*/ visited what is known as * the oldest house in Salem* 
last Saturday," the writer would have had in any one of the sug- 
gested sentences a specific theme for her paragraph (she men- 
tioned all three places in her paragraph about Salem) which would 
have provided ample material of a most interesting kind for a six 
or seven sentence paragraph, and which would have saved the 
writer from the mistake of mentioning several things and describing 
none of them. In a similar manner, any of the other beginning 
sentences quoted above could be changed into a definite statement 
of what the writer intended to tell about in the paragraph. 

To attempt to teach the technique of paragraph construction to 
young children in any formal way will probably do more harm than 
good. It is hoped, therefore, that this suggestion with regard to 
a more specific and more suggestive beginning sentence as one 
possible way of fastening children down to the discussion of a single 
topic will not be construed as a suggestion that teachers should 
straightway begin talking to their pupils about "topic sentences" 
and "summary sentences" and other "residua of rhetoric." If 
teachers do, they will be sure to wreck the whole business. There 
is a place for the formal study of the mechanical structure of the 
paragraph, but its place is not in the grammar school. The device 



STARTING PARAGRAPH RIGHT 37 

of the beginning sentence can be applied wJiere it is needed without 
calhng it by any technical name. The main thing is not how the 
first sentence or the last sentence, or any other sentence, should 
be formulated. The point to be made clear to pupils is that only 
one thing is to be the subject of a paragraph, that they are to waste 
as little time as possible in getting at the heart of their subject, and 
that they are to stop promptly when they have done telling the 
thing they started out to tell. Beyond observing these require- 
ments the utmost individuality of attack should be encouraged. 

Here are two compositions that illustrate the point of this 
chapter. Both have a fishing experience for the subject. The 
writer of the first one uses up half of the paragraph getting ready 
to fish. The writer of the second one starts his paragraph the 
instant he has hooked a bass. The first writer, after wasting half 
his space, does little with the rest of it beyond carrying on a loud 
conversation with his companion about their great luck, with 
nothing substantial to prove it. The second one doesn't last long, 
but things are lively while it lasts. There is no question as to 
which is the better story. 



AN EXPERIENCE IN FISHING 

(Eighth Grade) 

As there was nothing else to do my cousin and I decided to go 
fishing. The day was misty and we knew this would be a good day 
to fish. The place where we were to go lies in the outskirts of New 
Hampshire. It is called "Beaver's Brook." We got all the things 
we needed and started out. We arrived at our destination in a 
very short while. At once we started our luck. In about three 
minutes my cousin shouted, "I have a fish." She pulled in and 
found out it was a small one. She thought it was a large one be- 
cause it felt very heavy. After a while I shouted that I had caught 
a fish. We fished for about an hour and it turned out to be a lucky 
hour. We then started home with happy faces. 



38 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

A GOOD CATCH 

(Eighth Grade) 

At last I had a bite. I pulled and pulled, until a large bass 
appeared on the end of my line. Flip, flap, now he was in the boat, 
and now on my feet. I gave a kick, up in the air went the bass, 
and splash ! he was in the water again. Lucky for me, he could not 
get away, as he was still on the hook. I pulled him in again, and what 
do you think ? He was the largest bass caught there that summer. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD ENDINGS 

Equal in importance to a good beginning sentence is a good 
ending sentence. Often the ending sentence is the more impor- 
tant of the two, for the reason that the last impression counts for 
so much. Many otherwise poor paragraphs are saved by a well- 
phrased closing comment, just as many paragraphs that start out 
strong peter out at the end because of a closing sentence that is 
trite or flat or superfluous. The following paragraphs illustrate 
this point so well that no further comment is necessary. The 
endings are printed in italics. 

WEAK ENDINGS ILLUSTRATED 
REHEARSAL OF THE BAND 

(Seventh Grade) 

Every Sunday and Thursday the Verdi Band has a rehearsal 
at the Elm St. hall. I play the cornet. This band was named after 
Mr. Verdi, a great Italian music writer. The concert starts at 
seven o'clock Sundays, and Thurdays at eight. We play many 
great opera pieces. When we play we have to notice many kinds of 
marks, so we can play soft or loud. I like this hand very much. 



WEAK ENDINGS AND GOOD ENDINGS 39 

A NEW DISCOVERY 

(Seventh Grade) 

Our little cherry tree has grown rapidly this last year. This 
morning I discovered that the cherries can be easily picked from 
my bedroom window. This will be very handy. If I feel hungry 
when I am in bed all I have to do is to open the screen and pick 
some cherries. They will he ripe the first of July. 

STUCK IN THE MUD 

(Eighth Grade) 

One day some other girls and I went picking violets. We saw 
some big white violets out in a swamp, so we climbed out on some 
tree stumps. I was just picking some violets when I heard my 
sister calling me. I looked up quickly and saw my sister almost up 
to her knees in mud. We pulled and pulled, but she was stuck fast. 
Just as she was sinking deeper, I saw a man coming along the road 
near by. He came over to us, and after a while, he pulled her out. 
After that we said we would never go in a swamp again. 



GOOD ENDINGS ILLUSTRATED 
HOW I CAUGHT A POLLYWOG 

(Seventh Grade) 

A small pool afforded a fine place to catch pollywogs in, in the 
spring. One day, when I was four, my sister took me along, and 
when I saw the little fishes I was determined to catch one all my- 
self. Leaning over the edge I snatched for one, but it wiggled away. 
Another came near, and in my eagerness I leaned. over too far, and 
lost my balance. It was a wet and weeping child that my sister took 
home from pollywog fishing. 



40 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

CAUGHT IN THE ACT 

(Seventh Grade) 

Once when I was a little girl I was in the sitting room alone. 
Our canary was singing and I stood near the cage watching him and 
wishing I could hold him in my hand. The cage was low enough 
for me to reach by standing on a chair. So climbing up, I opened 
the little door and as quick as a flash the canary flew out. At that 
critical moment in walked mother. Some little birds tell stories, hut 
Dick never told how I fared. 

THE MASTERY OF "THE SENTENCE IDEA" 

The fundamental thing, the element upon which all other details 
of composition depend and upon which the whole superstructure 
of composition is built, is the mastery of the sentence. Nothing, 
therefore, is more important in the earlier grades than the develop- 
ment of what is variously called ''the sentence idea," "the sentence 
sense," "the sentence feeling," "the sentence instinct" — the 
trained habit of mind by which the completed thought is recog- 
nized as complete, and left to stand by itself. The lack of this 
fundamental "sentence sense" is the most glaring fault of elemen- 
tary school compositions. It is a natural enough fault in very 
young pupils, but its persistence in the higher grades, as is too 
often the case, seems almost indefensible. 

This fault appears in two forms. The first is present in the 
composition that rambles on and on, with statement after state- 
ment strung along on a series of "and's," ''bufs,'' and "so's," often 
without so much as a comma to separate the different statements. 
Very young children talk in this fashion, prattling on in a breath- 
less stream of words, seldom dropping their voices until they have 
reached the end of what they have to say. Children in school talk in 
much the same way. Here are some stenographic reports of actual 
talk of third-grade pupils recently heard in our own schools : 



MASTERY OF "THE SENTENCE IDEA" 41 

"My mother told me to go to the store and get her a loaf of 
bread and then I went to the store and the bread fell down and got 
all muddy." 

"The ship was very, very long and it carried coal and sometimes 
it carried pig iron and one day my papa got off the boat to buy me a 
fish line and one day I had that fish line and I was trying to fish on 
the river but the fish pulled so that I couldn't fish any more and my 
mother said to stop because it was too hard." 

The source of this fault suggests its remedy. Children must 
be taught through much careful oral work to break themselves of 
this bad habit. Most of our troubles in written composition come 
from our neglect of oral composition. The child who has been 
taught to speak in clean-cut sentences will give the teacher little 
annoyance by writing the kind of sentence that is here described. 
This has been said before, and is repeated here only to remind the 
teacher that if this fault persists in the written compositions of 
her pupils it is because she has failed to head off the trouble by 
sufficient oral practice on this particular point. While the habit 
is being broken up, the children's sentences will become short and 
jerky. But this will do no harm. The later grades will attend to 
that. In any case, the "choppy" sentence is preferable to the 
*'run on" sentence. 

The other form in which this lack of '* sentence feeling" shows 
itself is worse in some respects than the first, because it is a more 
violent breach of the laws of the sentence. Here is an illustration 
of it : 

"My dog is a spaniel his name is Nep, that stands for Neptune. 

Neptune was the sea god, we call the dog Nep because he is so fond of 

the water, he likes to be in it all the time, once he got caught in the 

weeds and was nearly drowned." 

The fault here consists not in stringing together a number of 
statements by "ands," but in running complete statements 
together without periods and capitals. Sometimes no mark 
separates the sentences. If any mark is employed, it is only the 



42 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

comma. Hence it is that text-book writers, in referring to this 
fault, call it "the comma sentence." So common is the blunder 
in the writing of young children that it has come to be known as 
The Child's Error. To make the offense more heinous in the sight 
of his pupils one teacher is known to have named it "The Baby's 
Mistake." In high school text-books (because of our neglect 
the fault often persists beyond the elementary school) it is vari- 
ously referred to as "the badge of ignorance," "the badge of shift- 
lessness," "the hopeless error." These epithets indicate how impor- 
tant it is that this fault should be gotten rid of early, if it is to be 
gotten rid of at all. Calling names, however, seldom does any 
good. What we need to remember is that the habit of running 
sentences together, either by the "and" method or the "no stop" 
method, is an exceedingly unfortunate one, and very hard to over- 
come, if it once gets a good start. 

If a close study is made of children's compositions with reference 
to The Child's Error, it will be found to occur most often when there 
is a close relation between one sentence and the next. This close 
relation is present whenever the succeeding sentence begins with 
a pronoun the antecedent of which is the subject of the preceding 
sentence. Thus, in the illustration above, "My dog is a spaniel, 
his name is Nep," the child is conscious of a very close relation 
between the two statements. He has a dog, and the dog's name is 
Nep. For this reason, children are particularly in danger of com- 
mitting the Child's Error when a sentence begins with he, she, it, 
they, this, these, etc., because sentences beginning with these words, 
while being grammatically independent, are somewhat dependent 
for their meaning upon the preceding sentence. In the same way, 
a clause or a phrase coming at the end of a sentence is likely to be 
thought of as an independent statement. It is easy for the child 
to forget it is a part of the sentence. Thus : "Washington once 
saved a child. Jumping into a swift stream to save it." Or : 
"And so the boy got the sled after all. Which was just what 
he wanted." Trained writers do not place clauses and phrases 



THREE-SENTENCE ORAL COMPOSITION 43 

in such places. But beginners are crude in the art of sentence 
structure, and for this reason are prone to use the rear-end phrase 
or clause, set off as an independent statement marked by both 
capital and period. 

It has been thought worth while to present the problem of 
the sentence in considerable detail, and to call attention to some 
of the reasons which render pupils peculiarly liable to the errors 
we have been describing. The mastery of the sentence is absolutely 
basal in elementary written work. It is folly to talk about teaching 
"style" and the other refinements of writing until children are 
sentence- sure. There are a good many things we would do, if we 
could. A few we must do. "There is no use in trying" to build 
a superstructure, when the foundation is lacking. And the 
foundation of all writing — of all expression of thought — is the 
sentence. 

GAINING THE MASTERY OF THE SENTENCE IDEA 
THROUGH THREE-SENTENCE ORAL COMPOSI- 
TIONS 

One of the most effective ways of getting children to talk is to 
limit all oral compositions for a little while, in all grades, to three 
sentences. This temporary limitation produces two very impor- 
tant results : First, it makes it possible to get every child to talk — 
the bashful ones as well as the talkative ones. Children who 
could not be lifted upon their feet by a derrick to give a long oral 
composition, will rise of their own accord to such a simple require- 
ment as three short sentences. Besides, by enforcing for a while 
such a limitation upon the length of each pupil's composition, 
every child has time to talk in a twenty-minute period, because no 
voluble child is allowed to monopolize the time by rehearsing the 
"Exploits of Elaine" or some other five-reel story he saw "at the 
movies" the night before. Second, the three- sentence requirement 
sets every child thinking of his sentences. He must have three 
— one, two, three. Each must begin with a capital and end (gen- 



44 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

erally) with a period. He must make sure that the teacher and 
the close-Ustening pupils hear them in his voice. This daily 
attention to the sentence, hearing nothing but sentences — short, 
simple sentences — counting them on their fingers, as many will 
do, discussing Johnny's first sentence or Mary's last one, will do 
more to establish the sentence-sense in children than any other 
scheme of teaching this most fundamental thing in composition. 

It has already been shown how fundamental to all success in 
teaching composition is the establishment of the sentence-sense. 
It is not too much to say that the lack of this sentence-sense has 
been responsible for most of our composition troubles. Seven- 
eighths of our old-fashioned correction of papers was spent in 
trying to make coherent a jumble of floundering sentences. 
Teachers have had to use their blue pencils in much the same way 
that a woodsman uses his ax to clear away the thick tangle of 
undergrowth. If the straggling, confused sentence structure 
could be eliminated from the compositions of children, the work 
of "correcting" them would be surprisingly reduced. More 
important than the release from the labor of trying to chop a little 
lane of daylight between the "ingrowing" sentences of the average 
composition, is the freedom it wins for the teacher to give attention 
to the larger and more significant features of composition writing, 
which heretofore she has never had time to teach. 

The short oral composition is much more effective as a means 
of fixing the sentence idea in the minds of children than is the short 
written composition. "Talking" compositions consumes only a 
small fraction of the time that writing them requires. This means 
much more practice for the individual in the same length of time. 
The whole class, too, hears every oral composition, notes its good 
qualities or its defects, hears the teacher's comments upon it, hears 
the point of her criticism applied immediately in the compositions 
that follow, and thereby profits from the exercise to an extent 
it is impossible for a class as a whole to profit from an exercise in 
written composition. 



CORRECT SPELLING OF COMMON WORDS 45 

This period of restriction to the "three-sentence composition" 
should not be too long. Two or three months ought to be suffi- 
cient for implanting the sentence idea firmly in the minds of children. 
During this period it is well to omit written composition altogether. 
The time lost for written composition will be more than made 
up by the mastery the pupils will have gained in the use of the 
sentence. 

CORRECT SPELLING OF COMMON WORDS 

There are two things in the general run of school compositions 
that, above all others, make countless teachers mourn. The first 
is the bad sentence — the "stringy" sentence, the "comma sen- 
tence," or worse, the sentence that is not a sentence at all. This 
was dealt with in the two preceding chapters. The other is the 
misspelling of common words. If these two conspicuous defects 
were absent from the compositions, how much brighter the world 
would seem to the teacher who sits down resignedly to correct a 
set of papers. Even a paper absolutely wooden in respect to 
interest and style, if it were free from these two glaring faults, 
would seem positively hopeful. 

We have been teaching spelling faithfully enough, but we have 
not been teaching it intelligently enough. We have been wasting 
precious time teaching children how to spell thousands of words 
they seldom or never write, while we have not taught them to spell 
the really small number of words that they write all the time. 
The trouble has been that our material of spelling has been chosen 
without reference to the fact that children possess three vocabu- 
laries (a reading, a speaking, and a writing vocabulary) and that 
spelling relates only to the last of these, the writing vocabulary. 
All this is admirably summed up in the conclusions of the investi- 
gation of the material of spelling made last year by the Division 
of Education in the University of South Dakota. Here are three 
of them : 



46 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

1. Since students in the highest grade of our common schools 
have on the average less than 2500 words in their writing, or spelling, 
vocabularies, our first conclusion is, our spelling material is had in that 
it give.s thousands of words which children do not use, and at the same 
time we are not teaching them to spell the much smaller lists of words 
which they do use. 

2. The words which give most trouble in spelling are found, 
almost without exception, in the writing vocabularies of the lower 
grades ; and . since these troublesome but useful words are not 
pointed out and effectively dealt with in these early grades, our 
handling of the most dangerous spelling material is not efficient, and 
students go on misspelling, year after year, words that should he mastered 
in the early school years. 

3. Since grade students commonly use from 500 to 2500 words 
in writing, yet on the average misspell but about fifty words, not 
one child out of a thousand misspelling as many as one hundred words, 
our spelling prohlem is not so gigantic as it is commonly helieved to he, 
for the reason that a handful of words misspelled over and over hy each 
student has misled us in our judgment. 

A list of about two hundred common words frequently mis- 
spelled is printed in this course of study (under assignment of 
work by grades), upon which teachers should place special em- 
phasis in their teaching of spelling. The list contains practically 
all of the "one hundred spelling demons" of the South Dakota 
report. Some of the words are repeated every year. Most of the 
words are introduced early in the course. A vigorous campaign 
against this handful of troublesome words for the space of a single 
year would go a long way toward banishing from school composi- 
tion the great bulk of the spelling errors which at present disfigure 
them. 

TEACHING PUPILS TO BE CRITICAL OF THEIR 
COMPOSITION 

An enormous amount of time has been wasted in the correction 
of "compositions," due to the lack of a true conception upon the 



TEACHING PUPILS TO BE CRITICAL 47 

part of the teacher as to just what the true purpose of the teacher's 
correction should be. Judging from the general practice of gen- 
erations of teachers, the purpose seems to have been to make 
the composition correct in every particular. The common pro- 
cedure of the teacher has been something like this : She marks all 
misspelled words, puts in a capital here and a period there, inserts 
a comma occasionally, combines a pair of jerky sentences into a 
single smooth one, and maybe herself writes a closing sentence to 
make the composition finish strong. Then the pupil rewrites 
it in his best handwriting (often making a few mistakes in the 
"revise" that he did not make the first time), and the composition 
is laid away in a drawer as a sample of the pupil's work. The next 
day she does the same. So do the pupils. With perfect serenity 
they repeat in their compositions the mistakes of yesterday, of 
last week, and of last year, which all the while the teachers 
have been laboriously correcting. For generations teachers 
have been correcting compositions in some such way as this, 
and their pupils have gone on making the same mistakes over 
and over again. Evidently we have been going up the wrong 
street. 

Now it is not the pupil's composition that we want to make 
perfect. We want to make the pupiVs power to write one a little 
less imperfect. The product upon which teachers expend so much 
time in their correction is of little importance. It is the pupil's 
power to see his own defects and to remedy them that is all important. 
The whole purpose of the teachers' correction should be to culti- 
vate in their pupils the habit of self-criticism. Therefore the only 
correction of compositions that is of any earthly use is that which 
trains pupils to correct their own. 

Teachers should remember that the matter of the pupil's cor- 
rection of his own work depends on his interest. You cannot 
develop the power of self-criticism in the boy who doesn't care 
whether he is right or wrong. One teacher can compel a boy to 
write a composition, but the whole school department cannot make 



48 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

him correct it intelligently unless he wants to. It is the teacher's 
business to make him want to. 

There will not be much chance of his wanting to correct his own 
written work or much profit in letting him assist in the correction 
of other pupils' compositions until the following things shall have 
been done : 

1 . There must be aroused in him the desire for self-expression. 

2. He must be led to see that there are ways of saying things 
which are better than other ways ; that there is something which 
we call "good English," which it is worth while learning how to use. 

3. He must be led honestly to prefer the better way of saying 
things to the way that was good enough for him before. 

4. His criticism of his own work must at first be directed until 
it is impartial and unsparing. 

5. His criticism of others must be directed and controlled. 
Criticism, like charity, should begin at home, but it very often does 
not. Until a pupil has proved himself a careful critic of his own 
compositions, he should not be allowed to criticise the work of 
others. At all times children, as well as teachers, must remember 
that criticism is quite as much a matter of merit as it is of mis- 
takes. Pupils must be taught to realize when a thing is good, to 
be made to think why it is good, and to learn what it means to 
commend as well to condemn. 

It has been clearly demonstrated to the three hundred elemen- 
tary teachers in the schools where the author's scheme of one- 
paragraph compositions has been followed for several years that 
the teacher's correction of composition has been enormously 
reduced. In the first place, the limitation of all "composi- 
tions" to a single paragraph reduces to a minimum the amount 
of written work the teacher has to examine and criticise. Hardly 
secondary to this strict limitation of the amount of writing as a 
means of lightening the teacher's burden of correction, has been 
the effect of the early establishment in the pupils' minds of the 



TEACHING PUPILS TO BE CRITICAL 49 

sentence-sense (discussed at length in previous chapters) and the 
insistence upon the use by the pupils of short simple sentences until 
they have reached the stage where they may be trusted to use 
longer sentences without confusion. There is no longer any ques- 
tion that to the elimination of confused sentence structure from 
children's writing may be credited the saving of much precious 
time hitherto wasted in faithful but fruitless correction. 

More important than the relief which comes to the teacher 
from her emancipation from the daily grind of "correcting" com- 
positions is the opportunity this new freedom affords her to do 
some really constructive criticism of her pupils' work which she 
never enjoyed when her whole attention was bent upon the correct- 
ing of wrong spelling and bad sentence structure. Under the new 
dispensation she is able to help her pupils instead of merely marking 
them. 

In the upper grades, the pupil's observance of the following 
rules will minimize the necessity of the teacher's correction : 

1. To select a subject out of his experience which he is sure can be 
handled interestingly in a single short paragraph. 

2. To settle what particular phase of his experience he shall 
choose for the "point" of the paragraph. 

3. To think over in advance a title for the paragraph which shall 
best express the particular "point" selected. 

4. To think out in advance a good beginning sentence that will 
lead straight to the heart of the thing, instead of wasting half the 
paragraph "getting ready to get ready" to tell the "story." 

5. To think out an ending sentence that will clinch the point of the 
story — preferably a sentence carrying the writer's personal reaction 
upon the experience narrated or described. 

6. To hold himself to the use of fairly short sentences, each of 
which has one and only one principal thought. 

7. After the first rough draft, to correct and improve the para- 
graph, by reading it "out loud to himself" several times, paying 
attention separately to such matters as these : 



50 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

a) The first time to inspect and improve the paragraph as 
a whole: good title; prompt beginning; snappy ending; 
no trivial detail ; better choice of words — more expressive 
verbs, more telling adjectives. 

b) The second time to improve his sentence structure and his 
grammar ; to note when a long sentence may be broken into 
two shorter ones with advantage, or when a succession of very 
short sentences, giving a "choppy" effect, may be made into 
slightly longer sentences, connected by some other words than 
"and," or "but," and other overworked connectives ; to see 
that every verb agrees in number with its subject, and every 
pronoun with its antecedent. 

c) The third time to make sure that every sentence begins 
with a capital and ends with the proper mark ; to see that 
commas are used where they are necessary to the sense ; to run 
his eyes over the words to see that each is spelled correctly, 
particularly those words which have proved his downfall 
many times before. 

Let it be remarked, in closing, that no child profits much from 
rewriting his composition. It is a good deal more sensible to let 
him apply what he has learned from his teacher's correction to a 
new composition. There are times, of course, when slovenly 
work must be penalized by compelling the perpetrator to do his 
work over. But the ordinary rewriting of papers, to secure a 
"high finish," is generally a waste of precious time. 



PART TWO 
ASSIGNMENT OF WORK BY GRADES 

FIRST GRADE 

{The work of the first grade is entirely oral.) 

I. Aims. 

To encourage free talk about things that children are interested in. 

To secure clear articulation and correct forms in everyday 
speech. 

To lead children always to use the sentence in talking. 

Children's talk should be free, spontaneous, and hearty. While 
encouraging self-expression, it is the teacher's task to guide and 
control the speech, to prevent mere babbling, and to make the exer- 
cise a pleasure to both listener and talker. 

With regard to ability to express themselves, an average class 
will be found to be divided into the garrulous, the monosyllabic, 
and the inarticulate. The garrulous must not be suppressed, but 
directed, — "Tell me one thing about your doll." The monosyl- 
labic must be encouraged to expand a word into a sentence ; next, 
to give two sentences, and finally, to tell the whole story. The in- 
articulate will soon follow the leaders and take part in this work ; 
they form the rear guard here as in all other kinds of school work. 

II. Topics. 

Child's experiences at home — helping mother, father ; play- 
things ; pets ; Saturday good times. 

Child's activities at school — helping teacher, playmates ; 
on the playground ; the reading lesson ; games. 

Observations of nature — flowers, birds, animals. 

51 



52 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

III. Illustrations. 

A number of illustrations are given here to show what an inter- 
esting variety of oral work can be developed from the above-men- 
tioned sources and to indicate the general character of the oral 
work that should be sought after in the first grade. They are not 
put here to be drilled upon and memorized by children. They are 
illustrations pure and simple, and are not at all intended as subject 
matter to be learned by heart. 

1. Suggestions for Developing, Guiding, and Controlling First Efforts 

a. One sentence. 

Teacher. I have a dog. He can jump through a hoop. 

Who has a dog ? Tell me one thing your dog can do. 

Teacher. My cat washes her face every time she drinks milk. 

Who has a cat ^ Tell me one thing your cat does. 

Teacher. Tell me one thing you do to help your mother. Begin 
this way — 

I wipe the dishes for mother. 

Teacher. Who has been out walking ^ 

Tell me one thing you saw. 

Teacher. Who has been on a visit ? 

Think what pleased you most. Tell me about it. 
h. More than one sentence. 

Teacher. Who has a top ? 

Select three children who signify they have a top to come forward 
and follow your lead. 

Teacher. To the first child : Tell me you have a top. 

Child. I have a top. 

Teacher. To the second child: Tell me the color of your top. 
Begin this way It — 

Child. It is blue. 

Teacher. To the third child : Tell me one thing it can do. Be- 
gin with It. 

Child. It can spin. 



FIRST GRADE ASSIGNMENT 53 

Next, have the three sentences repeated by the children, one 
after the other, so as to give the effect of a connected whole. This 
method gives a strong impression of three complete sentences, and 
should be continued (three children taking part in making the three 
sentences) until it is certain that the children have no further tend- 
ency to give their thoughts connected by and. 

The last step will be to have one child give the three sentences. 

The teacher must be ready to give help through suggestive ques- 
tions until children respond easily. 



2. Suggestive Talk on Child's Experiences at Home 

Helping. 

In vacation, I helped my mother make four beds every day. 

First, we turned the mattress. 

Then we put on the sheets and spread. 

We made it look very smooth. 

Mother said I saved her many steps. 

Pets. 

I have a canary. 

He takes a bath every day. 

Then he dries himself in the sun. 

Playthings. 

My doll has a little bedroom. 
It has a bed and a table. 
She has a little kitchen, too. 
There is a stove in it. 

Saturday. 

I played soldier with my brothers. 
My big brother was the captain. 
The baby carried the flag. 
I beat the drum. 



54 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



3. Suggestive Talk from Child's Reading 

The little old woman made a gingerbread boy. 
He ran away from her and from the little old man. 
But he couldn't run away from the fox.' 

Boy Blue always wore blue clothes. 

One day, he fell fast asleep under a haycock. 

His sheep got into the meadow. 



4. Suggestive Talk on Observations of Nature 

Flowers. 

I picked some purple asters last Sunday. 
I brought them to school on Monday. 
I gave them to my teacher. 



Birds. 

I saw a robin this morning. 

He went hopping along. 

I said, "How do you do.?" 

He just shook his tail and flew away. 

Animals. 

I have a black kitty. 
She loves to catch mice. 
She brings them to me. 

Wind. 

The wind called the little leaves. 
The red ones came. 
The yellow ones came, too. 
Then they all played together. 



FIRST GRADE ASSIGNMENT 55 



5. Miscellaneous 



I raked the ground for a garden. 

Then I made some little holes with my finger. 

I put the seeds in the holes. 

In vacation I went to Boston. 

I saw the animals in Franklin Park. 

I liked the elephants best. 

Mary and I took a walk. 

We found a lost baby. 

We took it home to its mother. 

I am going to have some new sneaks. 

They will be brown. 

My father will buy them Saturday. 

I wanted a ball very much. 
Mother has just given me one. 
It is a big blue one. 

I made a big snow ball. 

It was bigger than my head. 

I could sit on it. 

We have a garden in our schoolroom. 

There are tulips in it. 

We children cut them out and colored them. 

I have to go to the butcher's shop every Saturday. 

He has so much to do I have to wait. 

Then I watch him cut the meat with a sharp knife. 

I couldn't find my cap. 

I hunted everywhere. 

The dog had put it under the bed. 



56 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

My uncle gave me a nickel. 

I put it in my pocket. 

When I went to spend it, it was gone. 

My father gave me a quarter. 

I bought five flags. 

They are pasted on the windows. 

My motheT pulled my tooth out when I didn't expect her to. 

I was scared. 

She gave me a piece of candy to stop my crying. 



IV. Preparation for Written Work. 

No written language work is required in this grade. But much 
may be done by a methodical use of the seat work that accompanies 
the reading systems for this grade to insure technically correct 
written work when it is taken up in Grade II. 

The printed word-cards that are used for forming the rhyme or 
sentence on the desk may be used to teach orderly arrangement 
on the desk, and the placing of the word-cards right side up. Even 
at this early stage it should be the teacher's habit to train the 
children to inspect their own work before she looks it over. 

For the next stage, children should be taught to build their 
rhymes with alphabet letter-cards, first laying them with word- 
cards. The first step should be to teach the right handling of the 
material. Don't pass out so many cards that the desk will be 
crowded. Have the letters spread out so that each one may be 
seen. When a given letter is desired, see that the children search 
for it with their eyes, not with their fingers. Don't allow time to 
be wasted in picking letters over or sifting them through their 
fingers. 

The making of the rhymes or sentences with letter-cards affords 
opportunity to teach differences between similar letters like d and 
p, u and n, etc., the placing of the sentence in a straight line across 



FIRST GRADE ASSIGNMENT 57 

the desk, the proper spacing of words, the placing of the capital 
and period in every sentence. 

At the end of every such seat- work period, the teacher should di- 
rect the class as follows : 

Before I look at your work look at it yourself to see if your letters 
are placed in a straight line across the desk. 
Is there a space between words ? 
Read it over. Is every word there ^ 
Look at each word. Is every letter there ? 
Are the letters right side up ? 

Is there a capital at the beginning of every sentence ? 
Is there a period at the end of every sentence .? 

In the third stage of work, children should be taught to build 
sentences from the teacher's dictation. Such sentences should, 
however, be composed of known words. Children should inspect 
their own work, as outlined, before the teacher looks at it. 

Next, children may build individual sentences with word-cards 
or letter-cards. These should be rearrangements of the rhyme or 
story. Here are illustrations. 

The little rabbit heard a noise. 

She was afraid. 

She said the earth was falling in. 

She told all her big brothers. 

They told all the large animals. 

They were all afraid but the wise lion. 

He took the little rabbit on his back. 

They went to the tall nut tree. 

They found the noise was a big nut falling on the hard sticks. 

The squirrel wants to play with me. 

The little squirrel is glad. 

The little squirrel jumps for joy. 



58 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Little squirrel, jump for joy. 
Run, little squirrel, run. 
Play in the tree, little squirrel. 
The little squirrel plays in the rain. 

A boy had a goat. 

He ran away. ' 

He wanted some grass. 

He would not go home. 

He would not go for the boy. 

He would not go for the rabbit. 

He did go for the bee. 

Lastly, children may be given the privilege of making original 
sentences. They like to talk about things that interest them, and 
may be encouraged to find out how to spell the words they want 
to use. The only use and value spelling has is in connection with 
written work, and this connection may as well be made from the 
beginning. Children are proud of showing their power and abil- 
ity in this way, but should be held strictly to the correct spelling 
of used words. Allow no guesswork. 

Illustration of child's name and address : 

Mary Salitra, 

15 Common St., 

Lawrence, Mass. 

Before leaving the grade, children should make, with alphabet 
letters, their own names and addresses, and the name of their 
school. In addition, they should have acquired the habit of plac- 
ing : 

A capital letter at the beginning of their card-constructed sentences, 
in composing the names of persons, and in their use of the pronoun I. 
A period or question mark at the close of sentences. 



FIRST GRADE ASSIGNMENT 59 

V. Errors of Speech. 

Re-read the chapter in the Appendix on "Common Errors of 
Speech," to get a clear understanding of the principles and the 
methods that teachers should follow in training away the errors 
common to the speech of children. 

This work should not be begun too early in the first grade. 
The teacher should, of course, take note from the very first of the 
errors made by the children, but she should be content for a while 
with gently and patiently substituting the right expression for the 
wrong one. For the important thing at the start is to secure spon- 
taneity and free expression. After a little while the incorrect 
expression may safely be made a basis for special drill. The ex- 
pressions drilled upon should, of course, be those which appear most 
frequently in the actual speech of the children. The drills on any 
expression, once begun, should be constant. No reasons need be 
given by the teacher to show why this form is right and the other 
wrong. What the child needs is plenty of opportunity for repeti- 
tion of the correct form. The "language game" described and 
illustrated in the Appendix provides a happy method of securing 
the reiteration of the form the teacher may desire to impress. 
There is no limit to the number of games that the ingenious teacher 
can plan to meet a single incorrect expression, e.g., the "I seen" 
habit. 

The errors to be attacked in Grade I are not many, but they 
are deep rooted in the speech of the children, and will require the 
untiring efforts of the teacher to get rid of them. They divide 
into four groups: (1) verb errors; (2) pronoun errors; (3) col- 
loquialisms ; (4) mispronunciations. The teacher in the primary 
grades, however, is not in her teaching to make any reference to 
these distinctions. They are so grouped throughout the course 
to suggest how the teacher is herself to classify the errors which she 
hears made frequently by her pupils and which are not listed here. 
Every teacher should supplement the list of errors by others that 



60 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

she has observed and noted. She should first, however, study the 
Hst of errors that are printed in the grades below and above her 
own. It is not worth while to attack some errors until later in the 
course. On the other hand, there are some errors that must be 
rooted out in the low grades, if they are to be rooted out at all. 
In the first grade, work to correct the following errors : 

I seen him. I done it. 

I come to school. I run all the way. 

He he's sick. He don't want to. 

He ain't here. I knowed it. 

Me and him did it. It was me. 

My father, he said — 

Look't. This after. 

He took it off me. Gimme that. 

Lemme see it. I ain't got no book. 

Once they was a man who — 

VI. Comments and Cautions. 

Do not allow a voluble child to monopolize unduly the time of 
the class. Do not allow an impulsive child to relate some personal 
experience which is of small interest to other children. Time is 
too valuable to be wasted in this way. The talkative child must 
be wisely restrained, and the uncommunicative child encouraged. 

Insist on clear utterances and a natural (not a schoolroom) tone 
of voice. 

Don't interrupt the talker if you can help it, and correct in such 
a way that the child will be conscious only of the help. It is very 
harmful at this stage to arouse self -consciousness or a feeling of 
restraint. 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 61 

Do all you can to cure the "and" habit. 

Children are very imitative. Consequently it is necessary that 
the teacher should carefully watch her own use of English. With- 
out being too prim, she should insistently guard against slang, 
faulty idioms, grammatical errors, and provincial forms. She 
should cultivate habits of perfect enunciation, flexibility of tone, 
and a varied vocabulary. The teacher who cannot and does not 
talk well herself has no business to try to teach children to talk well. 

Train children to drop the voice at the end of the sentence. 



SECOND GRADE 

ORAL 

(Four-fifths of the language time in the second grade is devoted to oral 

language.) 

I. Aims. 

To secure more freedom and fluency in talking. 

To lead children to tell what they have to say in an orderly 
manner, and to keep to the point. 

To increase the power to use correct speech without rousing self- 
consciousness or a feeling of restraint. 

To make children feel that distinct speech and a natural, pleasant 
tone of voice are as necessary to good talking as are interesting 
things to talk about. 

To deepen the feeling for the sentence — never to let an "in- 
complete" sentence pass. Encourage use of the question sentence 
and the exclamation, for variety and effectiveness, without naming 
them or formally distinguishing them from the "telling" sentence. 

II. Suggested Sources. 

Child's experiences at home — helping father, mother, sisters 
and brothers. 



6^ SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Talks on how to act helpfully and politely at home, at school, 
on the playground, and in public places. 
Observation of the nature world. 
Games. 

III. Illustrations. 

(Note. — It is to be understood that these are illustrations of 
the kind of oral work that second grade children should be trained 
to do. They are not put here as subject matter for children to 
be drilled upon and to repeat from memory.) 

Experiences at Home. 

I take care of the geranium. 

I water it every day. 

Yesterday I spilled some water on the floor. 

The pitcher was too full. 

Nature. 

Walter's garden is in the back yard. 

He planted morning-glory seeds and tulip bulbs. 

The morning-glory seeds have come up. 

The tulips will be in blossom in a week. 

Games. 

There are swings on the Common. 
I like to swing very much. 

After I have been swinging for a while, I get out and give some one 
else a chance. 

I have a little kitten. 

Her name is Tricks. 

Tricks is very cute. 

She pulls at my shoe laces, and at my dress. 

She always climbs up in my lap. 

How to Treat a Visitor. 

Yesterday, we had a visitor in our room. 
When she came in, Edith gave her a chair. 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 63 



When we read, we did our best. 

We like to have people visit our class. 



Miscellaneous. 

My grandfather has some cows. 

When he talked Polish to them, they could understand him. 

They always answered moo. 

My baby brother likes to play with the doorbell. 
He would not stop when I told him to. 
My mother came with a strap. 
Then he ran away. 

My sister and I played millinery store. 

We trimmed two hats. 

Mine looked like a Quaker bonnet. 

We have a stuffed squirrel. 

He has a nut in his paws. 

A boy asked me why I didn't eat it. 

I said because it had been there too long. 

Charles gave me a book with samples of wall paper in it. 
Some of them are very pretty. 
I like the gold patterns best. 

At Christmas time, we had two Christmas trees. 

After we got through with them, we put them in the garden. 

They looked very pretty after a snowstorm. 

I have a little ring I had when I was two years old. 

It just fits my little finger. 

My mother wants me to keep it always. 

On my way home I saw my shadow on the fence. 

I was afraid. 

I ran home as fast as my legs could carry me. 



64 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

A boy told a girl that he could slide very well. 
When he was saying this, he fell down. 
How the girl did laugh ! 

(An effective use of the exclamation.) 

Every time I whistle, my canary whistles after me. 

He sings prettier than I do. 

I would rather listen to him than sing myself. 

IV. Common Errors of Speech. 

The teacher should read over the chapter on "Common Errors 
of Speech" in the Appendix. She should also re-read the notes 
printed under this heading in the first grade. Keep in mind the 
groupings of the errors, as there explained, but do not discuss the 
"grammar" of them with the pupils. Study the list of errors in 
all the grades, but confine your work mostly to those of your grade 
and the grade below. They will keep you busy. Use some "lan- 
guage game " every day. You will find plenty of them in the chap- 
ter on "The Language Game" in the Appendix. If they do not 
suit you, make up some of your own. Language games may be 
played at any time during the day, — to fill up a few odd minutes 
here and there, or as a change after a period of concentrated work 
in number or phonics. 

In the second grade, work on these errors : 

We sung it. I done it. 

We et it. He knowed me. 

I writed my name. ' I seen it. 

My pencil is broke. It's tore. 

You was afraid. We drawed a robin. 

I can't find it no place. He hadn't ought to go. 

I ain't got no book. He don't need a book. 

^^ 

He did it hisself. Them kind ain't good. 

Me and him went. 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 65 

I got it off a him. He is the one what did it. 

Are they any school ? He didn't give me none. 

Look't here. I was to home. 



I wash me own self. Gimme that pencil. 

He would of gone. I donno. 

I hat to go. I'm thinkin. 
They was six hooks. 



V. Comments and Cautions. 

Avoid rousing self -consciousness by too many criticisms. 

Insist on careful pronunciation of final syllables ending in g, t, d. 

Remember that " so " and " then " are habits as bad as the " and '* 
habit. 

Banish the "run-on" sentence from your children's talk, if you 
can. 

Teach children to drop the voice at the ends of their sentences. 

PREPARATION FOR WRITING 

At the beginning of the year, teachers should carefully test the 
ability of the children to use the alphabet seat- work. 
They should see that their classes possess these powers : 

1. Speedy handling of cards. 

2. Placing letters right side up. 

3. Correct spacing of words. 

4. Making an even line across the desk. 

5. Correct use of capital and period. 

6. Correct speUing. 



66 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

This may be accomplished by having children make sentences, 
copying the teacher's model on the blackboard. 

The children should be taught to inspect their own work and 
correct their own errors before the teacher examines it. Before 
extending the work, she should make sure that every child has 
reasonable proficiency as described above. 

Next, children should be required to make original sentences 
with letter-cards. In this work, the question of spelling is an im- 
portant one. It has been demonstrated that children of Grade II 
have a much wider oral vocabulary than they can possibly be taught 
to spell. The only way to meet the difficulty is to encourage chil- 
dren to become responsible for the special words they wish to use. 

Use the oral period for managing this. Ask each child to be 
ready with one sentence. As he gives it, require him to think of 
the spelling of each word. If there is one he cannot spell, suggest 
that some one at home may help him, or that his teacher will be 
willing to, provided he can't get help, but that he must come to 
her for help before or after school. At the beginning of the next 
session, have the oral sentences made with letter-cards, and inspect 
for the correctness of the vocabulary spelling in particular. The 
reading of sentences by individuals who have shown ability to spell 
unusual words or who have shown great effort to improve their 
own work is a strong incentive. 

When children have ability to make one sentence in this manner, 
develop power to make two related sentences, then three. At each 
stage, insist upon technical correctness, independence in work, and 
upon the child's own inspection for errors. 

Before passing to the next stage, that of writing the sentence, 
attention should be given to the elimination of certain weaknesses 
that are found in this grade. The first is that of trite beginnings. 
I have and I like are special offenders. Here is an illustration : 

I have a dog. 
His name is Jack. 
He can do tricks. 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 67 

Such sentences should not be accepted in this grade. There 
is nothing interesting or personal about the illustration. Suggest 
this correction : Tell your dog's name in the first sentence. Then 
describe one trick he does. We would like to hear something about 
him that is different from other dogs. 

Beginnings like last night, yesterday, etc., should be ruthlessly 
refused. Don't allow them in any part of a composition unless 
they have some bearing on the narrative. 

In the same way, refuse trite endings. It is better to have a child 
give two sentences only, if he makes a good point on two, than to 
have him finish with a foolish question or an "I like" sentence, as 
in the following : 

I have a new doll. 
She wears a pink dress. 
I like her very much. 

Criticise such productions after this fashion : "Of course you do. 
Every one likes a new doll or a gift of any sort. We can't be in- 
terested in that. Tell something about your doll that we doni 
know." Children in this grade become very keen in regard to flat 
beginnings and uninteresting endings. Here is an illustration of 
how a class helped to improve a foolish closing sentence : 

A robin flew on my window sill. 
I heard him sing "Cheer up ! " 
I think he was looking for worms. 

This last sentence was refused by the teacher on the ground that 
birds don't look for worms on window sills. She asked the class 
to offer a more suitable ending. These three good ones were given : 

I think he was looking for crumbs. 

He looked like the one we drew in school. 

I wish he would stay all day. 



68 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

It is wise to continue letter-card work at the desk with such oral 
criticisms as are here described until the class is fairly proficient, 
for unless good habits of oral and desk construction have been 
formed, unless children have automatically become responsible 
for their own spelling, unless they have a fairly correct idea of 
what is desired in the way of compositions that are personal and 
interesting to others to listen to, it is a waste of time to begin the 
written work. 

WRITTEN WORK 

(Note. — Written work in the second grade does not begin until 
the second half of the year. Only one-fifth of the language time 
is given to written work.) 

I. Aim. 

To have the written work grow naturally out of the oral work, 
using the improved and corrected sentences made with alphabet 
cards. 

The written papers afford the teacher a new opportunity to dis- 
cover tendencies and weaknesses of the class and of individuals, for 
it is diflacult to listen and at the same time to judge of the inter- 
esting quality, the coherence, beginnings and endings, so as to make 
a helpful criticism at the end. A quiet time for reading enables 
her to discover papers that should be placed on the board for class 
inspection, some illustrating errors, others excellences. Children 
may thus be taught to criticise intelligently. They should see 
examples showing good beginnings and endings, unusual and 
specially fit words, and interesting talk. Weak compositions 
should be carefully selected and children should be taught to im- 
prove them as in the illustration given above. This use of the eye 
is helpful in training the ear to be critical. 

Some teachers complain that their children have no originality 
and tend to choose the same subjects and say the same things that 
were said before. It is a human failing. We all do. But with 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



69 



better teaching perhaps the next generation will do better, 
most successful way is to make use of models. 
This is the way one teacher did it : 



The 



Teacher. My dolly has big blue eyes. 
I don't see them very often. 
She wants to sleep most of the time. 

Child 1. I put my dolly to bed every night. 
It doesn't take me long. 
She is a sleepy head. 

Child 2. I take my dolly to bed with me every night. 
I sing her to sleep. 
Sometimes I fall asleep first. 

Child 3. My dolly's name is Virginia. 
Her cheeks are pink. 
Her eyes are blue. 
They can shut and open, too. 

Teacher. We have a cat in our house. 
She is a mother cat. 
She has six little kittens. 
My mother will give the kittens away. 

Child 1. We have a cat at home. 
She is an old one. 
My mother likes her because she frightens the rats away. 

Child 2. My cat is big and fat. 

She just eats and sleeps. 

She stays by the fire all day. 

My mother said she wished she could do that. 

Child 3. My cat is a big black one. 
He isn't afraid of anything. 
He prowls around the house all day. 
When it gets dark, he goes in the back yard. 
He howls all night. 



70 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

II. Examples of Good Compositions on Familiar Subjects. 

Here is a collection of cat and dog talks and some varied and 
interesting compositions on familiar subjects. Such subjects are 
good because they suggest personal experiences and develop keener 
observation of familiar objects. 

My cat cried and woke me up. 

I took her into bed with me. 

She got black hairs all over the bed. 

I tied a red ribbon around my cat's neck. 
I put a little bell on it. 
When she walks it tinkles. 

My cat sleeps between my dog's legs. 
She looks as if she were in a bed of fur. 
She does not get frightened if he moves. 
She knows he is harmless. 

My grandmother has three kittens. 
Two are brown and one is gray. 
I do not like the big brown one. 
She scratches whenever I touch her. 

My cat got into my little brother's bed. 

He was afraid and cried. 

My mother did not know what the matter was. 

I pulled a string around the room. , 

I didn't know the cat was lying under the stove. 

He jumped out. 

That made me jump. 

I put my baby's hat on my cat. 
I told my mother to look at her. 
She said I was as silly as the cat. 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 71 

Once when I was going home a dog came up to me and said, "Bow 
wow." 

I think he was saying, "Hello !" 

My dog got his bath Monday. 

When my mother was bathing him, he got her apron all wet. 

She had to change it. 

There was a dog on our street. 

He was sniffing in the snow. 

I think he was looking for a bone. 

My dog jumps on me when I come home from school. 

He covers me with hairs. 

I have to brush them off every day. 

My dog Fido buries everything he finds. 
My father left his pipe on the floor. 
Fido found it and buried it in the cellar. 

When I was going up the walk, I saw a black thing on the porch. 

I was afraid. 

When I got upon the steps, I saw it was only my dog trying to get in. 

I saw my first robin to-day. 
He was on my window sill. 
He looked like the one we drew in school. 

This morning when I was going home I saw three robins. 
They were under a water spout getting a bath. 

I was playing with my whip top. 
I made it walk down the stairs. 
It went down the whole flight. 

My top is a ball bearing one. 
I can spin it very well. 
It can hum. 



72 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

My top is green. 

I spin it every night. ^ 

It hums like a bee. 

My new top is red, white, and blue. 

It is a patriotic top. 

I like it because I am an American boy. 

My sister bought a balloon. 

She blew it up very big. 

Then it burst. 

I told her she spent five cents for nothing. 

Jimmy and I went fishing. 
We had only one hook. 
We caught three hornpouts. 
The last one swallowed the hook. 
What luck ! 

My father bought a liberty bond because he is an American citi- 
zen. 

Antoinetta said her father would, but he has eleven children. 

My doll's eyes are turned up at the corners. 

They are goo-goo eyes. 

She seems to be always laughing at me. 

III. Second Grade Written Standards. 

The illustrations printed in the preceding section are good ex- 
amples of the kind of "compositions" the majority of the pupils 
should be able to write at the end of the second year, if the teacher 
has faithfully followed the plan of the year's work. 

No matter how excellent the teaching, there will always be a few 
pupils in every class whose compositions will lack the interesting 



SECOND GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



73 



"touch" that appears in most of the preceding illustrations. But 
no composition should be deficient in respect to sentence form, 
capitals, periods, and the spelling of the words in the special list 
for the grade. The teacher, however, should not be content with 
mere correctness in these elementary matters. She should work 
hard all the time to develop the children's power to express them- 
selves in an interesting way. 



IV. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

Note : — Re-read the chapter on " Correct Spelling of Common Words " in the 
Introduction (pp. 45-46). 



again 

any 

asked 

buy 

can't 

coming 

cried 

does 

don't 

dropped 

drowned 

fairy 

first 

goes 

having 

heard 

higher 



knew 

know 

leaving 

loving 

making 

many 

much 

near 

off 

once 

only 

running 

school 

shining 

some 

sure 

taking 



their 

there 

they 

too 

tried 

using 

very 

want 

went 

when 

where 

which 

whole 

whose 

won't 

write 

wrote 



V. Comments and Cautions. 

Keep the sentence simple. If you do, "and" and "but" and 
"so" will not have a chance to get rooted in the child's written Ian- 



74 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

guage. It is bad enough to have to deal with them in his oral lan- 
guage. 

The amount of writing in the second grade should be limited to 
three or four sentences. It is bad business to permit children to 
write much before their experience in writing is sufficient to save 
them from a multitude of errors. 

Encourage free expression in the writing. Praise every sign of 
originality. 

One good closing sentence, expressing, no matter how whimsi- 
cally, some bit of childish reflection upon the subject he is writing 
about is worth more than reams of the flat, formal products which 
for years have passed as ** compositions." But this originality 
must be developed hand in hand with accuracy in all the mechanics 
of sentence writing. 

THIRD GRADE 
ORAL 

{Four-fifths of the language time in the third grade is given to oral 

work.) 

I. Aims. 

To secure more orderly talking than in previous grades; to 
keep to the point. 

To teach children to think a sentence through before speaking it. 

To form the habit of speaking every word distinctly, of making 
one's self heard, of using a natural tone of voice. 

To train the pupils to be good listeners. 

II. Suggested Sources. 

Home Life. 

Topics bearing upon helpfulness at home, and in all relations 
with playmates, younger children, the old and feeble, animals; 
matters of personal appearance and conduct. 



THIRD GRADE ASSIGNMENT . 75 

Community Life. 

The development of civic pride; ways of helping the street, 
fire, and health departments; ways of preventing accidents on 
the street, on street cars ; ways of preventing quarreling at play ; 
how to be a good neighbor ; behavior in public places. 

Nature Life. 

Observation of seasonal change in nature, bird and animal life. 
The teacher who loves nature and knows intimately her work, 
or who will set herself to learn a little of it, has an exhaustless store 
of subjects for oral language, even though her pupils live in the 
most populous tenement district of a mill city. 

Miscellaneous. 

Saturday good times ; Sunday walks at different seasons ; descrip- 
tion of toys ; of pets ; games played at home, at school, indoors, 
out of doors ; the policeman, fireman, postman, and their work ; 
the milkman, grocer, butcher, shoemaker, carpenter, and their 
work ; directions for making something, for playing a game. 

III. Suggestions for Improvement of Compositions Offered by Chil- 
dren. 

First, read the suggestions given in Grade II. The three points 
concerning criticism made for that grade are just as necessary in 
this grade, for children still begin weakly, still give trivial endings, 
and still have to be corrected for inserting useless references to the 
time an event took place. 

Collect illustrations of such weaknesses as you run across them 
in the papers. In this grade the / have and I like are not so fre- 
quently found, but the need of pruning and condensing is still 
pressing. Here are some examples : 

My dog is black and white. Every day when I go home he is 
waiting for me. When I play tag he runs after me. He is a playful 
dog. 



76 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

The first sentence is poor because it does not make a good 
*' opening" for the following sentences. The last sentence is use- 
less, for we already know the dog is playful. 

My father, mother, sisters and I were going to Haverhill one day. 
We were on the electric car. A lady got on the car. The seats 
were filled. My father got up and gave the lady his seat. 

See how much this is improved by condensing : 

We were on the electric car. A lady got on. All seats were filled. 
My father gave the lady his seat. 

The point is that the father was courteous. 

Sunday I went for an automobile ride. We went from Beverly to 
Ipswich, from Ipswich to Hamilton, from Hamilton to North Andover 
home. 

Such a catalogue of places is interesting to no one but the talker. 
He should be told so. 

I went for a ride Monday night to Lynn. I saw my grandmother 
and a little boy named Harris. I played with him all the evening 
long till I came home to Lawrence. We could not unlock the door 
with the key so my father climbed in the window. That was great 
fun. 

The last two sentences are the only ones containing any interest 
to the listener or the reader. 

In my room we have a flag. We have the names of the flowers on 
the board. We have China poppies in a glass. We have a very 
pretty picture on the wall. 

Too many things are mentioned. The second sentence or the 
last one might be developed interestingly. 



THIRD GRADE ASSIGNMENT 77 

My aunt has a little baby. Her name is Mildred. Her birthday 
is next month. I am going to get her a little dress and a pair of 
slippers. I am going to take her out. 

This would be good if the second and the last sentences were 
struck out. 

Following is a record of two lessons with a class on improvement 
of endings. The composition about a kitten was put on the board 
and the teacher asked for a better closing sentence. The six that 
follow show that the class caught the idea. 

Last night we left the window open. My kitten got out of the 
window. In the morning we wondered where she was. She came 
back again. 

No. 1. We thought she was lost. 

2. Maybe she was out hunting for a mouse. 

3. She was waiting for us to open the door. 

4. She went to the next house. 

5. We found she was in the barn. 

6. She was playing with the kitten in the next house. 

This composition about the pigeons was treated in the same way. 

Near my house there are some pigeons. They came to my piazza. 
I gave them some crumbs. They ate them. 

No. 1. When they eat a crumb, they look around to see if any one is 
coming. 

2. They take it in their bills and carry it away. 

3. I think they are tame to come on my piazza. 

4. I think they'll come all summer. 

5. If I do not scare them away they will come all summer. 

6. They eat out of my hand because they are tame. 

7. They didn't leave a crumb, because they were hungry. 

8. When I move away, I'll be sorry to leave them. 



78 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

IV. Examples of Oral Composition. 

It is to be understood that these examples are to be considered 
as illustrations only. They are not to be used as material for 
memorizing or for imitating in too slavish a fashion. They are put 
here as suggestions to teachers, and not as subject matter for chil- 
dren. 

Home Life. 

This morning was the first time I drove my uncle's horse. When I 
took him back to the barn and gave him some hay, he jumped. I 
think he jumped for joy. 

School Life. 

I told Miss Stone I hadn't a story ready this morning. She said 
I had better think of one. I am thinking and thinking but nothing 
will come. I have to talk just the same. 

Community Life. 

When I cross the street, I walk to the corner first. I look both 
ways. If a car or an auto is coming, I wait until it passes. 

My letter carrier wears a gray suit with brass buttons. He carries 
a leather bag over his shoulder. In this bag he puts the mail. He 
blows a whistle when he comes to the door. 

Saturday Good Times. 

My cousin and my family were doing tricks. I asked who 
could make a needle sail on water. No one knew how to do it. I 
showed them. I felt like a hero. 

Something to Make. 

Do you know how to make a Jack-o-lantern ? Take a big yellow 
pumpkin and cut off the top. Scoop out the inside clean. Then cut 
the eyes, nose, and mouth. Put a lighted candle inside, and put the 
top on again. 



THIRD GRADE ASSIGNMENT 79 

Miscellaneous. 

There was a nest in my yard. My brother took the eggs and broke 
them. I felt sorry for them, but what could I do to him ? 

I have a donkey on my farm. I tried to wash him. He gave 
me a kick. He washes himself now. 



V. Errors of Speech. 

The teacher should re-read the chapter on "Common Errors of 
Speech" in the Appendix, and the notes under this heading in the 
grades below and above her own. The grouping is the same al- 
ways : (1) verb errors, (2) pronoun errors, (3) colloquialisms, 
(4) mispronunciations, but the teacher is not to mention grammat- 
ical distinctions. Right use of language comes from habit, not 
from knowledge of terms or rules. Speech forms come to the child 
largely through the ear. Repetition fixes the habit of speech, 
whether it be good or bad. Speech is a matter of the spinal cord 
rather than of the mind. When the child said, "Can I have a 
piece of pie.^^" "May I !" corrected the mother. Then the child 
said, "May I have a piece of pie.^" and the mother answered 
"Yes, you can." The knowing mind said "may," the spinal cord 
said "can" ; therefore the tongue said "can." 

The "language game" (see Appendix) is the most effective 
method of getting the right forms to "sound right" to the child. 
Use the games every day, but do not work a few of them to death. 
When the "game" spirit wears ciff, half the good is gone. 

I done it. I seen it. 

I et the apple. That ain't mine. 

I seen him take it. He never give me a pen. 

Leave him do it. My pencil is broke. 

I ain't got no book. 1 trun the core away. 

He don't know. She brung it to school. 

Has John went yet ? You was down there. 



80 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



Here is yourn. 

Me aunt is sick. 

I'm after doing my work. 

Do like I did. 

These kind are bad. 

This is the boat what I went on. 



Him and me done it. 

Them are mine. 

Can I get a pen off him ? 

I was to school. 

I am all better. 

I can't find it nowhere. 

See what you're at. 



My mother is worser. 

The boy was almost drownded. 

My teacher's name is Mrs. . . . 



Be you a-goin' ? 
Gimme a cent. 

I was late, 'cause I went to 
the store. 



They was nobody to be seen. 



I hurted me. 



VI. Comments and Cautions. 

The teacher should do as little talking as possible. The exercise 
is not to train her, but her pupils. 

Get rid of the "stringy" sentence. 

The oral language period is not for entertainment, but for the 
training in language power. All children, therefore, should take 
part, not merely the voluble children or those who are naturally 
good talkers. 

Never let the conversation drag aimlessly to no destination. As 
soon as interest begins to fail, the topic has served its purpose, and 
another should be taken. 

It is of no use to say good things unless one speaks loud enough 
to be heard. 



Fault-finding and interruption to correct errors discourage. 
Sympathy and patience bring improvement from the slowest. 



THIRD GRADE ASSIGNMENT 81 

Remember that it is not enough for a child to say another's 
work is "good," "interesting," or "I Hke it." He must tell why. 
Expect every child to listen attentively, that he may be able to 
speak definitely of the work done. 

Constant practice in oral expression in the lower grades will 
make the correct formal expression on paper later a comparatively 
easy task, for the child who has learned to think clearly — and 
no one can talk intelligently without thinking clearly — will find 
little difficulty in mastering the mechanical art of putting that 
thought into writing. 

Teach your children to drop the voice at the end of the sentence. 

WRITTEN 

{Only one-fifth of the language time in the third grade is given to 

written work.) 

I. Aims. 

To make the written work a natural outgrowth of the oral work 
by having children write sentences prepared by the class and 
teacher in the previous oral lesson. 

Using these sentences as models, to develop power to produce 
original work on similar topics. 

To develop power to write independently a few interesting sen- 
tences on a given topic. 

To make habitual the correct use of the technicalities assigned 
to the grade. 

II. Lines of Work. 

Independent, original writing should be the strong objective this 
year. At first the work may be based upon models worked out by 
class and teacher in cooperation. 



82 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

The points emphasized in oral composition for this grade (omis- 
sion of useless details, good endings, etc.) should be made much of 
in the written work. The blackboard is of great value as a means 
of impressing these important matters upon the minds of pupils. 

Toward the end of the year much blackboard composition should 
be done by the pupils themselves. Several should be sent to the 
board at one time. The customary preparation should be omitted. 
The direction should be: "Think your sentences out carefully 
and write them when you are ready." In this way the responsi- 
bility for producing well-constructed and interesting work lies 
wholly with the writer, and a fair judgment may be formed as to 
his possession of sentence feeling, spelling power, and other tech- 
nicalities. 

III. Suggested Topics. 

The topics for oral composition suggested for this grade are 
equally suitable for the written work. The teacher is therefore 
referred to the second section of the oral outline for this grade. 

IV. Technicalities. 

Capital letter beginning sentences, names of persons, of places, 
days of the week, months of the year, the name of the state, the 
city, of the child's own school. 

Period at the end of a telling sentence, after the abbreviations of 
names of days, of months ; after Mr., Mrs., St., Mass. 

Question mark after questions. 

Exclamation mark after exclamations. 



V. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

(The words in italics are repeated from the second grade list.) 

asked making went 

buy shining when 



THIRD GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



83 



coming 


their 


which 


dropped 


there 


whose 


fairy 


they 


write 


heard 


too 


wrote 


know 


tried 




afraid 


February 


quite 


all right 


forty 


right 


almost 


friend 


Saturday 


already 


great 


speak 


always 


guess 


though 


beginning 


its 


together 


busy 


laughed 


truly 


children 


lose 


Tuesday 


clothes 


loose 


until 


color 


money 


Wednesday 


doctor 


month 


whose 


early 


none 


women 


easy 


often 


would 


enough 


people 


writing 


father 


please 





VI. Written Standards. 

The following paragraphs are thought to represent a fair standard 
of the kind and quality of written composition that should be ex- 
pected of children at the end of the third grade. They are all 
based upon topics which have been suggested as practicable for 
this grade. No one of the paragraphs contains more than five 
short sentences. Every paragraph contains a bit of personal in- 
terest. 

A few children will not be able to write as well as the standard. 
But the majority of every third grade class should at the end of that 
year be able to write a paragraph of the character and length of 
those printed here, composed of sentences grammatically com- 
plete, correctly capitalized and punctuated, and free from mis- 



84 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

spelled words. They should be able to do this without oral prep- 
aration. The first writing, it should be understood, is the measure 
of the pupil's power. The corrected and rewritten copy is worth- 
less as a standard of ability. 



Home. 

Mother has been away a whole week. It is very lonesome without 
her. I wish she would come home. 

This is Mother's birthday. After breakfast we gave her our pres- 
ents. Mine was a pretty bookmark. I made it in school. 

School. 

Yesterday afternoon we played school. We all wanted to be the 
teacher. So we agreed to draw lots. I was the lucky one. 

Last Friday we had a spelling match. I spelled "beginning" 
wrong. I shall never spell it wrong again. 

Sometimes my teacher lets me stay after school. I clean the 
blackboard for her. I put the books in a neat pile. 

The story I like the best is the Twelve White Ducks. It tells about 
the twelve princesses who were changed into twelve white ducks. 
The Prince found them and saved their lives. Then they became 
princesses as they were before. 

In General. 

Once I was going for a walk. I saw a pony in the road. I gave 
him some hay. After he had eaten the hay he bowed his head. 
That's the way he thanked me. 

Our dog is the cutest dog you ever saw. He has long white curly 
hair. He sits on my father's desk all the time. He is a bluff dog made 
of cloth. 



THIRD GRADE ASSIGNMENT 85 

I came in school with dirty hands. Miss told John not to give 

me a book because my hands were dirty. I come clean now. 

This is how we play "Squirrel." First our teacher chooses a 
squirrel. Then we all put our heads on the desk. Next, the squirrel 
taps some child on the head. That child tries to catch the 
squirrel. 

I saw something bright lying in the gutter. It looked just like a 
nickel. I stopped and picked it up. It was only a tin tag. 



VII. Comments and Cautions. 

In each grade stress is put upon a few things. The teacher 
should make sure that these are positively and usefully known. 
Succeeding teachers must not let this knowledge and habit 
lapse. 

The fact that in the third grade the sentences are for the first 
time cast into the form of a paragraph, instead of each new sen- 
tence starting on a new line will tend to produce "the child's error'* 
(see chapter on "The Sentence" in Part One) upon the part of 
children who have not yet the "sentence habit" strongly estab- 
lished. Teachers in this grade must, therefore, make a good deal 
of this fundamental thing in writing English. The sentence idea, 
or sentence sense, is not an easy one for some children to get. 
Children must be taught early to distinguish between a sentence 
and a group of words that is not a sentence. There is no need of 
lugging in grammar to teach the distinction. It is the thought 
that tells the child what a sentence is, not subjects and predicates 
and other grammatical considerations. 

Pupils cannot too early be taught the habit of looking over all 
written work before handing it in, in order to correct their mis- 
takes. 



86 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

FOURTH GRADE 
ORAL 

{Three-fourths of the language time in the fourth grade is given to 

oral work.) 
I. Aims. 

Pupils who have had three years' training in oral composition 
according to the method definitely worked out in this Course of 
Study will enter the fourth grade not only willing but eager to 
talk. This very eagerness for self-expression, to which a con- 
siderably increased range of experience gives added impetus, 
creates the need of carefully limiting the length of compositions 
and of curbing a tendency on the part of children to introduce 
too many details into their compositions. These things are 
essential : 

1. To limit the oral compositions to four or five sentences. 

2. To train pupils to select a particular "phase" of their subject 
and to "tie up" every sentence to that. 

3. To teach pupils, through the daily criticism of their oral com- 
positions, to distinguish between that which adds to the interest of 
the particular "point" they are making in their compositions and 
that which adds nothing to the interest of it. They should be 
taught to realize that a sentence that doesn't add anything to the 
interest of the "story" is not only useless but takes away from the 
excellence of it. 

Continue to work for better beginnings and endings, following 
the suggestions made upon this point in third-grade work. Train 
pupils to think of beginnings and endings before they stand on 
their feet to present their oral composition. 

Insist on clean-cut enunciation in all talking. Teach your 
pupils these fundamental things : 

(1) To open their mouths when they speak. 

(2) To speak in a clear, low voice — low in the sense of being in 
the natural register of the child's voice, not in the high-pitched 



FOURTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 87 

"schoolroom" tone — yet loud enough to be heard distinctly in all 
parts of the room. 

(3) To sound final g's, f s, d's and th's, and to take pains to pro- 
nounce correctly such words as "children," "this afternoon," etc. 

II. Examples of Oral Composition. 

These actual fourth-grade compositiolis indicate the kind of 
work pupils should be able to do at the end of the year. 

SHE WAS REAL 

My brother and I saw Baby Alice, the big fat girl, in the circus 
last week. My brother said she was stuffed and I said she wasn't. 
To prove it I bumped into her and found that I was right. 

THE SURPRISE 

This morning I woke up at five o'clock. I hurried and dressed so 
I could surprise mother and father when they got up. When I 
went, out into the kitchen they were there all dressed. It was a 
surprise to me instead of to them. 

ONCE IS ENOUGH 

Two or three days ago my mother told me I could go to Clara's 
house next week to a party. I spoke of it again this noon. She 
told me she didn't know whether I could go or not. I made a mis- 
take when I asked her the second time. 

A POOR VACATION FOR ME 

During vacation my sister is going to work. I will have to keep 
house in her place. I wish vacation would never come this year. 
I would rather go to school one hundred years than keep house one 
day. 

III. Common Errors of Speech. 

The teacher who has studied the lists of error in the grades 
below the fourth (as she ought to do) will find many of them 
repeated here. As is shown in the introduction to the chapter on 



88 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



"The Language Game" (see Appendix), the errors children make 
in their speech, hke their errors in spelHng, are really few. A 
dozen verbs, for example, are responsible for one-sixth of all the 
errors made in their speech. There is only one way to overcome 
these errors and that is to expose children for some period every 
day to the sound of right form. They must say it and hear it, 
over and over again. Correct speech in young children is a matter 
of the ear. Don't waste time in trying to show why this form is 
right and the other wrong. Use the language game freely. These 
games should be short and lively. They should never run over 
five minutes. They should be so devised as to give every pupil 
a chance to use as many times as possible the correct form chosen 
for the day's practice. 



I done it. 

He come back. 

We drawed a bird's nest. 

I brung it to him. 

There was about seven boys there. 

He trun it to me. 

We have saw them. 



I seen it. 

Where was you ? 

My book is tore. 

It ain't so. 

My pencil is broke. 

You hadn't ought to do it. 

That don't make me laugh. 

Look what I done to that paper. 



Them are easy. 

He can't run as fast as me. 



They are wrong theirselves. 
Me and Frank will go. 



Can I get a book off Mary ? 
My sister learned me to sew. 
Where shall I bring them to ? 
The baby got sick on us. 
Sing it like John does. 
Can I have a drink ? 



John stayed at home. 

She sits in back of me. 

Leave me do it. 

Where are you at ? 

She never does nothin'. 

He he's always whispering to me. 



Ketch the ball 
Lemme have that. 
I c'n git it. 



They was an old man there. 
Are they any school ? 



FOURTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 89 

IV. Comments and Cautions. 

The child learns to talk correctly by talking under careful direc- 
tion, just as he learns to read by reading, and to write by writing. 
There must, therefore, be daily systematic, persistent, and patient 
training in talking in every grade from the first to the eighth. 

If in the arithmetic class a child should say, "2X3 are 5," 
would his teacher say "6" and pass on? Then why when a boy 
says, "We come home last night," should she say sotto voce, "We 
came home," and let the matter pass at that? The boy is so 
intent upon his thought that he repeats what his teacher says 
without mental reaction, and unless something is done later to 
rescue the correction from that indefinite region known as the 
subconsciousness, the teacher may as well save her breath. If 
she does not wish to interrupt him while he is talking, she cer- 
tainly must take time at the first free moment to go back to his 
error and require a correction. If the mistake is one he habitually 
makes, some scheme must be devised to keep him conscious and 
watchful, for nothing short of eternal vigilance will eradicate the 
evil. 

It is a more difficult thing to judge the excellence of spoken 
language than that of written language, because the impression 
of the former is so fleeting and so intangible. The teacher must, 
therefore, train herseK to keep one ear open to the style of the 
pupil speaking, while the other is engaged in listening to the 
things he has to say. If every teacher could once or twice a year 
have a stenographer take down the oral compositions of her class 
and put them into type for her exactly as they were spoken, it 
would help her teaching of oral language more than anything else 
in the world. 

The teacher must do everything she can to take away the self- 
consciousness of her pupils. She should be quick to find signs of 
power as well as evidence of weakness. 



90 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Time should not be wasted in aimless, haphazard talk. 
Look out for the "rising inflection." 

WRITTEN 

{One-fourth of the language time in the fourth grade is given to written 

work.) 

I. Aims. 

The various lines of work suggested for the third year should 
be carried forward. The paragraphs should grow slightly in length 
and give evidence of a little growth in the sequence and connec- 
tion of the sentences. The quantity of the writing must not be 
permitted to increase at the expense of correctness. It is better 
to have a paragraph of four good sentences, than one of twice the 
number carelessly done. Remember that the written work forms 
but a very small part of the language work of this grade, and be 
sure that the oral work is never slighted to gain time for perfect- 
ing the written work. 

Here for the first time the letter is introduced, and it is to hold 
a very important place in the written work of the grade. A dis- 
cussion of letter writing in school and a number of models of 
letters will be found under the proper section of the year's work. 

Children should all the time increase in their mastery of the 
mechanics of written work and in their capacity to criticise their 
own composition. 

II. Lines of Work. 

1. Sentences. 

Much care should be taken to hammer home "the sentence 
idea," which is so fundamental in writing. Either it is a difficult 
thing for some children to get, or we have neglected to teach it, 
or we have taught it poorly, for a great many children in the 
upper grammar grades do not seem to know when one sentence 
ends and the next one begins. Or, if they know, they have not 



FOURTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 91 

yet "got the habit" of beginning their sentences with a capital 
and ending them with a period. 

It is both unnecessary and unwise to confuse fourth-grade 
children by introducing the grammar of the sentence. The idea 
of the completed thought is all-sufficient. 

2. Paragraph Compositions. 

The standard paragraphs printed in the Grade III outline 
suggest the kind of original composition work that should be con- 
tinued this year. Keep the sentences simple and the paragraphs 
short. 

Fourth -grade paragraphs should be free from the misspelling of 
the common words upon which special drill has been given from 
the first grade up. 

3. Letters. 

The letter is the only kind of composition that every child will 
have to write after he leaves school. For that reason the school 
should give much practice in letter writing. If the children who 
leave the grammar school cannot write a correct letter, our work 
in written composition is a joke. 

In the interests of teaching economy, one form of the friendly 
letter, one form of the business letter, and one form for address- 
ing the envelope are printed in an Appendix to this course, which 
are to be used by all teachers in all the grades, regardless of their 
personal preferences or predilections. After the children leave 
school, they may modify this form as much as they like, but while 
they are in school they should be required to conform to the school 
standard. 

The form, or arrangement, of the letter is a matter wholly 
separate from the writing of the letter itself. It is a matter of 
pure technique and should be taken up as such. Thus, a letter 



92 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

should be placed on the board, or hektographed, and the atten- 
tion of the pupils called to the mechanical placing of the several 
parts. After sufficient study, the letter should be copied by the 
pupils. The letters that the teacher puts before the children for 
study of the form should be models of letter writing as well as of 
correctness of mechanical arrangement. The body of the letters 
so used should be short (not more than four or five sentences 
in the fourth grade), but they ought to read like real letters from 
real children. You will find some letters of this sort later on in 
this section. Nothing should be said about the body of these 
letters at this time, but the children will catch the spirit of them 
without comment from the teacher. Later on, these same letters, 
or others, should be dictated to test the children's knowledge of 
the form. All models presented to children should conform 
strictly in arrangement and punctuation to the standard letter 
form adopted for this course of study. 

When the form has been well taught, the work of writing original 
letters should begin. It is the almost universal experience of 
teachers that the letters which children write in school are pain- 
fully unnatural and uninteresting. That is because they have 
usually no real letter to answer, no real person to write to, and 
no reason or desire at that particular time to write any kind of a 
letter to anybody. It is a horrible example of the necessity of 
"having to say something" instead of the satisfaction of "having 
something to say." So far as it is possible, therefore, the letters 
written in school should be real letters to real people. Otherwise, 
the motive is wanting, and the letters, while they may be even 
uncomfortably correct in respect to form, are likely to be pain- 
fully artificial and dull. In order to get the effect of realism, 
teachers should therefore contrive some scheme of actual corre- 
spondence. The resourceful teacher does not need to be told 
how. 

Only friendly letters are undertaken in the fourth grade. These 
should contain one paragraph only. They should have to do with 



FOURTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 93 

interesting occurrences at home, in school, on hohdays, or special 
occasions; with invitations to share good times; with apprecia- 
tion of pleasures shared ; with sympathy for sickness or mishaps. 
The following letters may be helpful to teachers as illustrations 
of the sort of letters fourth-grade children ought to be able to 
write at the end of the school year. The full letter form is not 
carried out in these illustrations. 

Dear Mary, 

I am taking piano lessons. I practice one hour every 
day. I can play a waltz. Come over Saturday and 
hear it. 

Your cousin, 



Dear John, 

A week from to-day will be my birthday. I am to 
have a party at four o'clock. I wish you would come. 
Your friend, 

Fred. 

Dear Fred, 

I cannot be at your birthday party because I am 
going away with Father. I shall not be home again 
for a week. You know how sorry I am to miss the fun. 
Your friend, 

John. 

My dear Miss Brown, 

I have been very sick for the last month, and the 
doctor says I cannot go back to school for quite a while. 
I am very lonely sometimes. Will you please send me 
the names of some good books ? I should like some- 
thing like "Little Women." 

Your affectionate pupil. 



94 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Dear Aunt, 

Our teacher has just taught us to write a letter. I 
shall write one to you every week. We have learned 
the first verse of "America." I know every word of 
it. Would you like to see how well I can write it? 
Your loving niece, 



Dear Frank, 

John told us this morning that you are in bed with a 
bad cold. I hope the doctor is not making you take 
medicine. I hate to take medicine. We began a new 
story in class yesterday. The name is "The Blue 
Bird." Perhaps your mother will get it and read it to 
you. I know you will like it. 

Your friend. 



III. Technicalities. 

There are very few written technicalities required in this course 
of study. Those that are required should be thoroughly taught, 
and plenty of opportunity given to use them in writing. 

1. Capitals. Beginning names of holidays, of local geographi- 
cal names. First word of every line of poetry. 

2. Punctuation marks used in the writing of dates, letter head- 
ings, etc. 

3. Abbreviations. Those used in letter writing. 

4. Contractions. Isn't, didn't, wasn't, I've, won't, can't, 
wouldn't, and others occurring in common use. 

5. Letter form. Arrangement on paper ; indention of first line. 

IV. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

(Review words are printed in italics.) 

all right February shining 

afraid forty their 



FOURTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



95 



almost 


friend 


there 


already 


guess 


they 


always 


having 


too 


beginning 


heard 


tried 


busy 


laughed 


truly 


color 


lose 


until 


clothes 


much 


using 


coming 


people 


which 


doctor 


quiet 


whose 


dropped 


quite 


women 


early 


Saturday 


writing 


enough 






aloud 


honest 


ready 


also 


hoping 


really 


among 


hour 


receive 


because 


instead 


rough 


becoming 


just 


spoonful 


believe 


learned 


stopped 


bicycle 


losing 


straight 


built 


meant 


tired 


business 


minute 


touched 


carriage 


ninety 


through 


caught 


often 


used to 


choose 


perhaps 


weather 


early 


pieces 


wholly 


easily 


pleasant 


written 


fourth 


quietly 


wrong 



V. Comments and Cautions. 

To teach one thing for which the pupil is ever after responsible, 
then another thing plus the first, then a third plus the first and 
second, is the surest way of getting somewhere. 

It is very important that the pupil shall read his composition 
through before handing it in. By this means he will discover 
many common errors, such as omissions of words, misspelled 
words, incorrect punctuation, and the repetition of the same word. 



96 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

He should be taught to cultivate the power of imagining how it 
will sound when read aloud. 

The fourth-grade teacher should begin to transfer the burden 
of criticism from her own shoulders to those of her pupils. But 
the criticism of one another's work by the pupils must always be 
controlled and directed by the teacher. Children must be made 
to understand 

(1) That criticism deals with merits as well as faults. 

(2) That criticism of one another's work should always be given 
to helj) one another. 

(3) That the pupil must regard his fellow critics as his friends, 
not his enemies. 

In all oral and written composition the blackboard is most 
useful. By means of it the oral expression is vizualized, making 
pleasing features more emphatic, while faulty ones are recorded, 
to be changed again and again until satisfactory. 

VI. Written Standard. 

At the end of the year a fourth-grade pupil of average ability 
ought to be able, without oral preparation or other assistance from 
the teacher, to write a paragraph something like the following : 

SAD NEWS 

We had a letter from my uncle yesterday telling us that he was 
wounded very badly in the war. He said he thought he would never 
see home again. Mother cried when she read the letter. I wish the 
war would stop before it makes any more people cry. 

The paragraph should be upon some single item of personal 
experience. The number of sentences should not exceed four. 
They should be simple sentences, grammatically complete, and 
correctly punctuated. All words in the special drill list of this 
and preceding grades should be correctly spelled. 



FIFTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 97 

FIFTH GRADE 
ORAL 

(Two-thirds of the language time in the fifth grade is given to oral 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

By the time children have reached the fifth grade these things 
should have become "bred in the bone" : 

(1) That it is a desirable thing to be able to speak good English. 

(2) That one should speak slowly and distinctly and with suffi- 
cient "carry" to the voice to make oneself heard in all parts of the 
classroom. 

(3) That while talking one should stand erect and away from the 
desk. 

Give frequent drills in enunciation like those suggested in the 
Appendix. It does not make much difference what drills are 
used, or what words are practiced upon. The value of such drills 
lies in the suggestion that work of this sort sets going in the 
pupil's mind. Poor enunciation is, for the most part, a matter 
of ignorance. Children don't know any better. They speak as 
they hear others around them speak. When it isn't due to igno- 
rance, it is due to laziness. Some children and many grown 
people who know better are too lazy to enunciate their words 
clearly. It is too much bother. Most children, though, if taken 
early enough and shown the difference between distinct utter- 
ance and the slouchy manner of speech which so many of them, 
boys particularly, are prone to adopt, will respond to the teacher's 
efforts to set up for her class a high standard of enunciation. It 
is not enough, however, for teachers to talk about good enuncia- 
tion. The only way for children to learn to enunciate clearly is to 
have plenty of practice in clear enunciation. (See enunciation 
drills in Appendix, pp. 148-149.) This is where the drill is useful 
— not because of the particular sounds the drill contains, but 



98 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

because it often awakens in children their first reahzation of what 
shpshod habits of enunciation they have grown into without know- 
ing it. If children could learn no more than to sound their final 
consonants, their whole speech would be transformed. This 
much, at least, should be achieved in the fifth grade. 

Continue the work of developing the pupils' power through the 
daily practice to compose interesting oral paragraphs. Follow 
the suggestions contained in the fourth-grade aims (p. 86). 

Remember that the oral period is much more effective in teach- 
ing the fundamentals of composition than an equal length of time 
spent in written work. 

Be careful to permit no long paragraphs, and work constantly 
against the tendency of children of this age to wander from the 
point of their subject and to introduce trivial or irrelevant details 
into their paragraphs. 

It is now time to begin to teach pupils to select for the subjects 
of their paragraphs a better type of experience than that which 
young children commonly resort to. Children need to be shown 
what the true meaning of "experience" is. They must be shown 
the difference between the "experience " which takes place outside of 
the pupil and the "experience" that takes place inside of him. An 
"experience" is not the event witnessed or participated in; it is 
the effect on the judgment or the feelings produced by an event 
witnessed or participated in. The reporter who writes a news- 
paper paragraph on an automobile accident is not writing an 
"experience" of his own, although he may even have been an eye- 
witness of the accident, because he is simply writing a "story" 
of the affair from an entirely impersonal point of view. The fault 
of too many compositions, even on "experience" subjects, is that 
they are too impersonal — bare recitals of trivial facts without a 
word to show what was the writer's own state of mind during or 
after the "experience" narrated. The teacher's most effective 
means of showing children the difference between that which is 
true "experience" and that which is only "near-experience" is 



FIFTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 99 

abundant illustration. Thus, the two following paragraphs (from 
two eighth-grade pupils) make a good example of the point under 
discussion. 

A FOREST FIRE 

One day while out in the woods with two chums we smelt smoke, 
and not far away saw it rising slowly over the trees. We ran to the 
place and found a bad fire started. We each took a small branch 
and attacked the fire with energy. Our efforts to put out the fire 
were futile, so we decided to send the fastest runner back home to 
tell the fire department. While he was away the fire gained head- 
way, and by the time the fire engine came it was burning fiercely. 
The firemen made short work of it with their tanks of chemicals. 

WORTH MORE THAN MARKS 

When my history notebook was handed back to me I wondered 
what my mark would be. With shaky hands I opened the cover. 
On a sheet of paper inside were the words, "Very good" and under- 
neath the teacher had written, "A notebook that it is a pleasure to 
correct." I tell you those few words were worth more to me than 
all the "very goods" I ever got. I think every girl would rather 
have her teacher write a little word of praise on her paper than to 
put down on it the highest mark there is. 

Both of these paragraphs are well written. Both set forth a 
"personal experience" — in the sense that both relate a situation 
in which the writer was an important sharer. In the first para- 
graph we get indirectly some notion of the writer's feelings and of 
his intelligence and spirit. But at best it is a narrative of events. 
In no way does it compare, as a piece of self-expression, with the 
second paragraph, which lets us into the very heart of the writer. 
The first paragraph represents a type of composition immeasurably 
superior to the wooden sort of writing still common in many 
schools. Most teachers would be inclined even now to be satisfied 
with it. But the teacher who wishes to make a complete success 



100 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

of the method of teaching composition this book prescribes must 
cease to be satisfied until her pupils write not about things that 
happen to others, but about things that happen to themselves, — not 
about cut fingers or broken arms, but about their interests, wishes, 
hopes, discouragements, disappointments, successes, failures, 
ambitions, aspirations, likes, dislikes, cares, troubles, difficulties, 
rewards, punishments, satisfactions, regrets, resolves, — and the 
thousand and one other things that children experience every day 
of their lives and quite as poignantly as we grown-up people do. 

II. Examples of Oral Composition. 

These examples suggest something of the style of oral composi- 
tion to be aimed for in the fifth grade. They show a slight ad- 
vance over the selections representing fourth-grade oral composi- 
tion, but are still simple and childlike. 

There is no dearth of material for oral composition. The range 
is as wide as the experiences of the children. They must be 
shown, however, how to handle their simple themes in such a 
way as to make them interesting to those who listen to them. 
This is not an easy thing to do, but it affords opportunity for the 
best kind of training. The chief thing to impress upon children 
is that they must not talk about a string of things in their oral 
compositions, but that they must select some single "point, and, as it 
were, "elaborate" it. The examples which follow show com- 
mendable intent to do this very thing. They illustrate, too, the 
better type of "experience" subject — the kind in which the child 
expresses his own thoughts and opinions, and gives his own inter- 
pretation of what he observes. They were taken from the work 
of fifth- grade children. 

WHAT THE STOREKEEPER SAID 

Mother sent me to the store for a can of pineapple. When I got 
there I forgot the name of it. The storekeeper told me if I ever for- 
got again he'd throw me in the pickle barrel. A lady customer said 
I would make a big fat juicy pickle. 



FIFTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 101 

BURIED TREASURE 

Theodore and I buried some treasures. We dug a hole about 
fifteen inches deep. We put into it an old nail file, two cents, and a 
secret sign. I wonder what they will look like when we dig them up 
a year from now. 

NOT SO BRAVE AFTER ALL 

My little brother Harold told us that he was going to be a sol- 
dier. He said that he wasn't afraid of anybody. When the gas 
man came in, he hit Harold on the head with some bills. Harold 
ran and hid in the closet until the gas man had gone. When he came 
out my mother remarked that he would make a great soldier. 

NO CATS WANTED 

When I went out to water my garden last evening whom should I 
see sitting among my radishes but my cat. She does not like to get 
wet, so I sprinkled water all over her until she scampered away. I 
guess that taught her not to sit in my garden again. 

GETTING READY 

During the summer vacation I am going to think up a lot of lan- 
guage "stories" so I can use them next term. I am going to have 
more than three sentences, if I can, for I think sixth grade composi- 
tions ought to have four or five. I am going to make up a supply 
of "stories" that will last until the end of the year. 

ni. Common Errors of Speech. 

The errors listed for correction in the fifth grade are practically 
the same as those assigned to the grades below. The kinds of 
errors common to the speech of children are few in number. But 
unfortunately they persist from infancy to old age. It is not 
possible to assign certain errors to certain grades, and let it go at 
that. The same old errors must be attacked all along the line. 



102 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



The grouping into : (1) verb errors, (2) pronoun errors, (3) col- 
loquialisms, and (4) mispronunciations has no significance beyond 
serving to remind the teacher (see Chapter on "Common Errors 
of Speech" in the Appendix) that verb errors form the largest 
proportion of spoken errors, with the other three groups of errors 
following in order of frequency. That chapter in the Appendix 
should be studied carefully by the teacher who desires to make 
an effectual campaign against these errors. She should on no 
account be led into the mistake of discussing with her pupils this 
technical classification of errors, or the worse, mistake of discuss- 
ing in this grade the grammatical principles violated in these errors. 
Grammar never caused any child to speak correct English. There 
is only one way to teach right forms, and that is to have children 
say them often enough to make the right form sound right. 



Our piano is broke. 

He hadn't ought to go. 

You wasn't on the corner. 

I come to Lawrence last week. 

I've wrote my spelling long ago. 

She is laying down. 



He done it. 

It ain't no use. 

He seen more than you did. 

He don't know his lesson. 

Has the bell rang ? 



Them words are too hard. 
Me and you will go. 



I can write better than him. 



I can copy it off the board. 

They learn you to cook at that school. 

Take your place in back of him. 

My mother took sick. 

It won't hurt nothin'. 

I brung it home to my mother. 



He was to his house. 

She reads good. 

They left him go. 

Look where you're at. 

The answer what you got is right. 



The candy is et up. 
They was a new book here. 
Her ran ahead a' me. 
Look at 'em. 



Wait till I git me cap. 
Watch me ketch it ? 
May I borry a knife ? 



FIFTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 103 

IV. Comments and Cautions. 

It is quite remarkable to find how few complete sentences, each 
containing subject, predicate, and suitable modifiers, are exchanged 
between the ordinary teacher and her pupils. Presumably in 
every school directions, questions, and explanations are given; 
yet if teachers were to review their own language, they would 
probably be astonished to find how few sentences composed of 
well-chosen words they speak in a day. A sustained conversation 
between teacher and pupils is very unusual, frequently an unheard- 
of thing. Questions that are asked are generally elliptical in 
form, often they are expressed in single words, while the answers 
are very generally sent back by the children in single words or 
phrases, not infrequently by the monosyllables "y^s" and "no." 

The shorthand report of eighteen recitations in a New York 
school showed that out of 750 answers to the teachers' questions 
420 were one word answers, and 100 more were phrase answers. 
What about the answers in your room? 

Insist that when the child talks he stand erect and free from 
his desk and that whenever practicable he face the persons to 
whom he talks, as in ordinary conversation. This physical con- 
trol of his body will, when it becomes a habit, help him to control 
his thinking and his talking. 

Teach children the habit of dropping the voice at periods. 

Keep the following cautions on the blackboard where the pupils 
can't help seeing them : 

Stand up straight. 

Speak distinctly. 

Watch your English. 

Use short sentences. 

Stick to the point. , 

Make it interesting. 



104 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Correct oral English may be realized in the language lesson 
only to be lost in the other periods of the daily program, unless 
the teacher carefully guards against any lapses by her pupils 
from the correct form until such time as right habits of expres- 
sion impel them to use the correct forms without any conscious 
effort on their part. Pupils should learn that during the entire 
school day their statements should be grammatical and complete. 
The teacher should seldom supply part of the pupil's answer or 
statement. 

The daily training in speaking before the class will in time enable 
the child to express his thoughts in the presence of others with- 
out nervous fear or a feeling of embarrassment. The results at 
first will often seem crude and unsatisfactory to the mature mind 
of the teacher; but if finally the child acquires a composed, 
pleasing, and forcible manner of speaking, the end is well worth 
the effort. If the issue is only self-control and self -poise, the time 
spent in the acquirement of these is time well expended. 

At the close of every recitation, or at least once a day, serious 
mistakes in English should be definitely and forcibly corrected. 
If this is done in a mechanical way, in the same manner day after 
day, little will be accomplished. On the other hand, if the work 
is carried cfn with spirit and intelligence, much may be done for 
the pupil's English. 

WRITTEN 

(One-third of the language time in the fifth grade is given to written 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

Extend and strengthen the lines of work laid down in the pre- 
vious grade. 

Sentence work should still be restricted to the simple form of 
the sentence, except in the case of individuals who naturally write 
the longer sentence well. Those who do not should be pinned 
down to the short sentence until they show themselves able to 



FIFTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 105 

use the larger freedom judiciously. Below the seventh grade the 
child who has not natural language gifts loses himself in a com- 
plex or a compound sentence. All we need to get in the grammar 
school is clear and complete sentences, properly capitalized and 
punctuated. We cannot expect to get ease and grace. Those 
who go to the high school will get there all the style they want. 
Those who do not go to the high school will not need much Eng- 
lish style to meet their writing needs in life. If any of them should 
later discover the need of style they will get it for themselves. 

The original paragraph work should show a slight increase in 
length, and the beginnings of skill in the art of elaborating, so to 
speak, the simple themes upon which the pupils write. The first 
thing to learn in this art is to focus the thought upon some single 
phase of the theme selected and make the whole paragraph turn 
upon that. This is not an easy art to acquire, and it cannot be 
acquired in a single year. The lack of training in this respect is 
very noticeable in children's written themes. They write a dozen 
different things in a single paragraph, and consequently write 
nothing interesting about any one of the dozen things. The sub- 
ject of "How I Help at Home" becomes a catalogue of duties 
from building the fire in the morning to washing the dishes after 
supper. Now, starting the fire in the morning is a theme full of 
possibilities for a composition paragraph, and washing the supper 
dishes is a theme not without opportunities for interesting (and 
possibly humorous) comment. Yet the great majority of chil- 
dren's compositions are of the catalogue type rather than of the 
selective type. Fifth-grade children are capable of grasping this 
single phase idea, and of working it out little by little in their 
themes, if they have the right kind of help and suggestion from 
the teacher. Much can be done toward this end in the oral com- 
position work. Indeed, it is here that the foundation of written 
work is laid. If an oral composition is allowed to ramble over a 
variety of things, touching none of them interestingly, the written 
paragraphs will be no better in this respect. 



106 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

The letter should form an important part of the written work. 
The standard form printed in an Appendix should be the unvary- 
ing standard in all grades. Follow the pattern of the model 
letters given for the fourth grade. These may be lengthened 
slightly, hut should not he more than one ^paragraph in length. They 
should be of an informal, intimate type, simple, sincere, and jolly 
— such as real children would write to one another or to grown 
people of whom they are fond. Insist, however, that the form of 
the letter be strictly like the standard. 

In the mastery of the mechanics and in the power to criticise 
their own work fifth graders should show steady growth. 

II. Technicalities. 

The technicalities in this course are purposely kept few and 
simple. Teachers are not to teach anything that is not here in- 
dicated. Many of the "old favorites," like the "comma in a 
series" and the comma after the name of a person addressed, 
have been intentionally omitted. You will notice, also, that 
quotation marks have not yet appeared. 

If children use direct quotations in their written work, and 
leave out the marks, or use them wrong, don't worry about it. 
Let it pass unnoticed. There are many more important things 
to worry about. Quotation marks will be taught later on in the 
course, but only a very little time will be spent upon them. The 
use of quotation marks in the kind of writing that our boys and 
girls will be called upon to do after they leave school is very rare. 
It is an unimportant item upon which the school has been wasting 
much precious time. Teach thoroughly the few things you are 
told to teach, and leave the rest to somebody else. 

1. Capitals. Titles of compositions ; addressing envelopes. 

2. Punctuation marks required in letter forms, including the 
address on the envelope. 

3. Apostrophe in possessive singular. 



FIFTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



107 



III. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

Drill and test constantly upon the special spelling words as- 
signed to each grade in this Course of Study. Nothing short of 
one hundred per cent accuracy should satisfy the teacher in the 
case of these "demons." Every spelling investigation that has 
been made has proved these to be the hardest words for children 
to learn to spell ; and since they are words most frequently used 
they are responsible for the bulk of spelling errors in children's 
compositions. Give frequent tests, and keep a record of indi- 
vidual errors for comparison from test to test. Don't stop until 
one hundred per cent efficiency is achieved. Each grade, of course, 
should be able to spell all of the words that have appeared in 
earlier grades. Pay special attention to review words printed in 
italics. 

(Review words are printed in italics.) 



all right 


easily 


their 


all ready 


enough 


there 


beginning 


friend 


tired 


believe 


heard 


too 


busy 


know 


truly 


business 


laughed 


until 


carriage 


minute 


weather 


caught 


people 


women 


color 


quiet 


written 


coming 


receive 




dropped 


studied 




answered 


except 


trouble 


cities 


handkerchief 


umbrella 


cousin 


neighbor 


useful 


cotton 


oblige 


village 


different 


pleasant 


whom 


drawer 


replied 


woolen 


either 


straight 





108 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

IV. Written Standards. 

The following paragraph was selected to represent the com- 
position ability that it seems reasonable to expect from the child 
of average power at the end of his fifth year. It is not an easy 
thing to select from children's compositions of each grade a single 
paragraph that shall indicate the desired amount of growth from 
year to year. While the standard paragraphs used in this course 
of study have not been graded according to any scientific scale, 
each has been chosen after careful deliberation. Considering the 
fact that the schools have hitherto had no standards of any kind 
in oral or written composition, it would hardly be sensible to be 
over-finical in this first attempt to establish some. It is believed 
that they are adequate for the purpose of indicating to teachers 
in a concrete way the sort of original composition the general run 
of fifth-grade children should be capable of turning off at the end 
of the year. 

AN HONOR 

The night of the preparedness parade last summer I had the honor 
of holding the Mayor's hat while he was making a speech. When 
he finished talking he thanked me. On the way home that night I 
thought what a happy boy I was ! The next morning I thought of 
the. nice composition I could make out of it. 

V. Comments and Cautions. 

Teach children to avoid the very common habit of beginning the 
narration of an experience by such a formula as "Yesterday after- 
noon," "Last Friday," "As I was walking down Essex St." 
What has been suggested in a previous section about the impor- 
tance of introducing into the beginning sentence some action or 
other observable detail which sharply strikes upon the reader's 
attention will be useful in helping to get rid of the "tag-ends, 
fore and aft," which encumber so many paragraphs. 

Pupils should continue the habit of criticising and correcting 



SIXTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT lOD 

their own written work before handing it in. What they can do 
for themselves the teacher should not do for them. 

Select two or three special points that you wish to impress, 
and examine the papers rapidly, with those points alone in view. 
Concentrate your efforts on those points for a time, then select 
other points and transfer the emphasis of your attention to them. 
The papers can be examined more easily and rapidly and, there- 
fore, the exercises may be given more frequently when but few 
points are in mind. 

Insist on each pupil's doing his best in every exercise, and refuse 
to accept careless work. Hand such work back, without correc- 
tion, and require the pupil to do it again. 

Do not try to "beat the standard" by encouraging or permitting 
your pupils to write paragraphs longer than the "standard." 
To write longer paragraphs is not to write better ones. It is 
just as bad business to try to exceed the standard as to fail to 
reach it. 

SIXTH GRADE 

ORAL 

{Two-thirds of the language time of the sixth grade is given to oral 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

Continue to increase by daily oral composition exercises the 
pupils' power to talk freely upon their feet, to be clear in their 
utterance, and careful of their English. This carefulness in their 
speech should characterize all their recitations. The habit of 
good oral expression can never be established through the medium 
of the language period alone. Effort must be constant through 
the whole day's work. 

Work constantly for the improvement of the enunciation 
of your pupils and the development of a speaking voice that 



110 SPEAKING" AND WRITING ENGLISH 

without forcing or the use of an unnatural register can be heard 
easily all over the room. Have frequent drills in articulation 
like those suggested in the Appendix. Strive to get clear enun- 
ciation in all recitations. It is of little use to work for ten or 
fifteen minutes a week on enunciation drills, and accept mum- 
bling and half audible talk from pupils during the rest of the time. 
The teacher who goes in for clean-cut enunciation will get it. 
We fail to get a good many things from our pupils because we 
are not earnest enough in our effort to get them. It is not to be 
expected, of course, that children to whom English is an acquired 
language will speak as perfectly, so far as enunciation goes, as 
native-born children. That difficulty is always to be taken into 
consideration in judging the results of a teacher's work in oral 
language. No sixth-grade class in any community, however, is 
made up exclusively of children of non-English-speaking parents ; 
so that there are always children enough in every room whose 
speech may be taken, in all fairness, as samples of the persistence 
and success of the teacher's efforts to secure distinct enunciation. 

Daily exercises in oral composition are to be continued. The 
suggestions for improving the paragraphs, given in ' the third, 
fourth, and fifth grades, are equally applicable here, and the sixth- 
grade teacher should make herself familiar with them. 

Paragraphs should not exceed five sentences in length. 

Follow up strongly the fifth-grade effort to make clear to chil- 
dren by constant illustration the difference between the objective 
and the subjective type of "experience" and the superiority of the 
latter as a source of material for composition subjects. Re-read 
the chapter on "Teaching Pupils to Avoid the Trivial and Sen- 
sational in Personal Experience" (pp. 24-26). 

II. Examples of Oral Composition. 

The following paragraphs represent something of the quality 
of work to be sought for in the oral compositions of this year. 



SIXTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 111 

They have for subjects a single item of some individual "experi- 
ience" upon which they freely express their opinions or feelings. 
The longest of them has only six sentences. No sentence is wasted. 
There is some evidence of thought about interesting beginnings 
and endings. Best of all, they are natural, genuine fragments 
of self-expression. 

NONE FOR SALE 

When I entered the school yard Zita asked me if I had an oral 
composition ready. I said I had not thought of any. Zita said 
"I have three." Because I didn't have any, I offered to buy one 
of hers for a penny, but she refused to sell one. She told me that 
people must work for themselves if they want to get along. 

NEVER AGAIN 

One night as we were going to have our supper, I asked my mother 
for five cents. Just because she wouldn't give it to me, I went into 
the front room and said I didn't want any supper. I thought my 
mother would call me out and give me the five cents. When I went 
into the kitchen again, I found the table cleared off and no supper 
for me. 

CAN'T FOOL ME 

Bessie told me that she could tell if I liked butter or not. I 
thought she was silly, but I let her test me. She put a buttercup 
under my chin. The reflection made my chin yellow, so she said I 
liked butter. As a matter of fact I don't like butter. So I told her 
she wasn't so wonderful after all. 

III. Errors of Speech. 

The school has to fight perpetually the language habits of 
the street, and children are in school less than half of every year. 
But it is not fair to measure the power of the school to overcome 
bad language environment out of school by comparing the length 
of time spent in school with that spent upon the street. By 
reason of its opportunity to rivet attention and create vivid im- 



112 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



pressions, an hour in school, if used to the fullest extent, far 
outweighs an hour upon the street. Everybody knows the mir- 
acles the school performs upon the little foreign children who 
enter it. But miracles are not wrought incidentally. Children 
cannot be taught to forsake bad habits by occasionally correct- 
ing their use of aints and wants. The effort must be organized, 
regular, and persistent. The errors, after all, are not many, 
and it is wonderful how the avoidance of a few of them affects 
our opinion of a person's education. The knowledge of a dozen 
forms of correct expression will give a person an appearance of 
being well educated, even though his schooling was very limited. 
The man who never says aint almost qualifies as an educated man. 
Excellent material for drill for upper grades may be found in 
"Applied English Grammar," a text-book written a dozen years 
ago by Edwin H. Lewis, published by the Macmillan Company, 
and in a more recent book, "Language Games for All Grades," 
by Miss Alhambra G. Deming, published by the Beckley-Cardy 
Company of Chicago. 



The ice had broke. 

The picture is tore. 

I seen him when he done it. 

I come to school early this morning. 

There was two new boys in the yard. 



He done his work first. 
You wasn't there. 
'Taint no good. 
She don't want them. 



Hand me them books. 



Who 



IS going, you or me 



It was me that lent the book. 



John took my knife off me. 

She's just after coming. 

My teacher learned me to write. 

It sort of makes you afraid. 

Leave me see. 

I have a book what has no cover. 



Here, look't. 

He was to church. 

It went fine. 

Where are you at ? 

We won't have no school to-day. 

I hat ter go home. 



SIXTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 113 

Mary talked like he did. The water pipe is all froze up. 

Can I speak to her ? 

What are you doin' ? Kin' you ketch the ball ? 

Are they any school ? Give it to 'em. 

I'm a thinkin' a goin' to-night. My mudder gave me the book. 
Gimme a book. 

IV. domments and Cautions. 

Remember that those who talk well will write well. Writers 
may not be speakers, but really good speakers can always write. 

The teacher must insist that the pupil give her only his best 
English in all recitations, and that clear expression become more 
and more general as the year advances. 

In a recent survey of classroom teaching i^ the city of New 
York, shorthand reports of eighteen recitations showed that 
all the pupils together used about 5000 words, while their teachers 
used about 19,000 words. Who does the most talking in your 
room "^ 

Helpful criticisms by the pupils should be encouraged, but 
aimless, trite remarks such as "I liked what you said" and "I 
think you had a good choice of words" should be discouraged. 
Impress upon the pupils that only such criticism should be offered 
as will call attention to an excellence, or enable the one who is 
speaking to do better in his next effort. Avoid also the danger 
of allowing the criticism to stop with minor corrections and evident 
slips. 

Pupils, also, should be taught by degrees to make definite, 
systematic, and kindly suggestions on both the matter presented 
by the pupil talking and his manner of presenting it, and should 
be led to discover what the secret is of the effectiveness of the 
pupils who talk well. 



114 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

WRITTEN 

{One-third of the language time of the sixth grade is given to written 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

To train children to find in the common, everyday hfe about 
them interesting topics for their paragraphs. 

To lead them to distinguish between "real experience" and 
"near-experience," and to choose the former always for their 
subjects. 

To encourage every evidence of originality and the expression 
of the pupil's opinions, feehngs, and desires. 

To restrain the "ready writers" from exceeding the standard 
length of paragraph (not more than five or six sentences at most) . 

To arouse the beginnings of a pride in workmanship — in in- 
teresting beginnings and endings that have "the personal touch." 

To excuse no sentence not grammatically complete and not 
properly begun and ended. 

To excuse no misspelling of the words in the special drill lists 
from the first to the sixth grade. 

Sentences should still be kept simple. At the same time 
pupils who show themselves capable of using complex and com- 
pound sentences in their written paragraphs without getting 
snarled up in them should be allowed to use them. The teacher 
must remember, however, that the longer a child allows a sen- 
tence to run, the greater the danger is that it will run away with 
him. Just as soon as a pupil shows by his careless handling of 
the long sentence that he is enjoying more liberty than is good 
for him, he should be brought back to the starting line. 

It would be a waste of time to attempt to train all of the pupils 
in this grade, or even a majority of them, to use the longer sen- 
tence. Even if it could be successfully done, it would be done 
at too great an expense. There are other things more important 
at this stage. If your class leaves the sixth grade able to write 



SIXTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 115 

good short sentences, invariably begun with a capital letter and 
ended with a period or whatever closing mark is required, you 
may thank your stars. Have no regrets that the course does 
not permit you to teach a maturer style. You will give them 
the thing most needful. If they remain in school, they will 
get later on what you perhaps would like to give them now. If 
they leave school early to go to work, you will have given them 
the best possible thing — the habit of writing short, simple, clear, 
.and correct sentences. 

The one step in advance which the sixth-grade teacher may 
take, with respect to sentence structure, is to train her pupils 
to use a greater variety of ways of beginning their sentences. 
They should be taught to avoid repetition of the same word or 
phrase. They may be also taught to practice some of the simpler 
principles of inversion, so as to make the important things in the 
sentence come first, or last. The conventional order of subject, 
verb, and object in the sentence tends toward monotony. If 
this stereotyped order can be varied occasionally, the monotony 
of a succession of short sentences will be relieved and the whole 
effect of the sentence structure improved. It is not expected that 
all the pupils will develop much skill in this kind of work, if it is 
attempted; but it is better to spend effort upon improving the 
simple sentence than to try to get all the children to use complex 
and compound sentences, which is more than can be expected of 
sixth-grade children. 

In the sixth grade the friendly letter is to continue an important 
feature of the written work, and the business letter is to be intro- 
duced. The standard form for the business letter is printed in 
an Appendix. The body of the business letter should be confined 
to a few sentences. The chief thing to teach is the form. The 
friendly letter ought to show some growth in interest and ease, 
in proportion as the children gain in the power to elaborate a 
single theme interestingly in their own original paragraph work. 
All letters are to be confined to a single paragraph. 



116 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

II. Technicalities. 

Quotation marks are here introduced for the first time. Do 
not try to teach the so-called "broken quotation." Emphasize 
the idea that every word spoken by the person that is quoted, 
and not one word more nor less, must be inclosed in quotation 
marks. // every word spoken can be inclosed by one set of quo- 
tation marks, then only one set is required. But if every word 
spoken cannot be brought inside of one set of quotation marks, 
without also taking in words that were not spoken by the person 
quoted, then two sets must be used, or as many as are necessary. 
Drill on quotation marks must not be overdone. The school 
in the past has wasted many hours upon them, with no results. 
Tests have proved that with all the teaching of them, eighth- 
grade children use them very imperfectly in their free writing. 
As a matter of fact, quotation marks do not enter enough into 
the kind of writing that the average boy and girl do after they 
leave school to make it pay to spend very much time in drill 
upon them. The same is true of the comma in a series and the 
comma after the name of a person addressed, two other points 
upon which we foolishly spent our time in former days. 

(1) Capitals. Use in abbreviations listed below, and in first 
word of quotation. 

(2) Punctuation marks necessary in letter forms. 

(3) Abbreviations. Gov., Hon., Pres., Rev., and others in 
general use. 

(4) Quotation marks in simple quotations. 

(5) Review all technicalities listed under earlier grades. 

III. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

The pupils should be tested from month to month on all the 
words in these special lists, from the second grade up. From 
these tests, lists should be made of the words misspelled by any 
considerable number of the class, and vigorous drill given upon 



SIXTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



117 



these words until subsequent tests prove they have been mas- 
tered. Nothing short of perfect scores should satisfy the teacher. 
It has been proved that not one eighth-grade child in a thousand 
misspells more than one hundred words of his ordinary writing 
vocabulary. It is believed that if all the words contained in this 
course of study are thoroughly mastered, the spelling problem, 
so far as the pupil's normal writing vocabulary is concerned, will 
be satisfactorily solved. 

(Review words are printed in italics.) 



already 


friend 


studying 


all right 


having 


their 


beginning 


heard 


there 


believe 


minute 


too 


bicycle 


oblige 


truly 


business 


pleasing 


using 


coming 


quite 


woolen 


different 


really 


writing 


enough 


receive 




except 


replied 




absence 


describe 


separate 


allowed 


hurried 


several 


attacked 


library 


speech 


certainly 


occurred 


surprised 


clothing 


seized 





IV. Written Standards. 

All the studies that have so far been undertaken with a view 
to establishing a scale for the measurement of composition have 
shown that there is a startling diversity in the judgment of teachers 
as to the excellence of compositions submitted by pupils. The 
belief that this wide variation of judgment as to the intrinsic 
merit of the same composition is due, in no small degree, to the 



118 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

lack of anything like definite standards by which the language 
work of pupils may be measured has led to the formulation of 
the written standards set up in this course of study. That there 
will be complete agreement as to the suitability of these selections 
as standards is not to be expected. But until further study and 
experimentation will have evolved a better set of standards it is 
hoped that they will help to interpret to teachers in concrete 
form the requirements of written language. 

The composition that follows is intended to represent the 
language power which it is believed the average sixth-grade pupil 
who has been trained along the lines suggested in this course of 
study ought to possess. 



MY ELEVATED RAILWAY PROBLEM 

I am building an elevated railway with my erector. As I expect to 
make it more than ten feet in length I shall be forced to make a curve. 
The curved track is all right, but to get the cable around the curve 
and not tip the car over is a different story. I think that some way 
or other I can manage it. But it is going to take some planning. 

V. Comments and Cautions. 

Strive to avoid making composition work disliked. In all 
correction try to stimulate the pupil to improve his written 
language because of the value to himself, and teach him to appre- 
ciate correction as an aid in securing that desired end. Do not 
dwell on correction, either in oral or written work, so much as to 
restrain the child's flow of thought. He should be stimulated to 
do careful work, but should be left to express his thought un- 
checked. 

Discourage the use of "dialogue" in your pupils' paragraphs. 
It is a kind of writing which because of its technical punctuation 
is more bother than it is worth. Besides, there is not much room 
for "conversation" in our short paragraphs. Furthermore, the 



SIXTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 119 

sort of conversation that children usually put into the mouths 
of their characters adds little, if anything, to the interest of their 
compositions. 

There are two lines of correction and criticism to be observed 
continually : known errors, those upon which there has been 
previous class drill; unknown errors, those which the pupil does 
not recognize as mistakes or weaknesses. Pupils should be held 
to self-correction of the former (those errors upon which they have 
been well drilled) ; but matters pertaining to the bettering of 
their sentences, their choice of words, their arrangement of ideas 
are matters for the teacher to discuss in class. She cannot do 
this if all her time is spent in correcting mechanical errors. 

See that your children get the habit of going over their work 
carefully, before handing it in, and making any changes they 
think will improve it. Pupils should feel free at such times to 
draw a line through a word and substitute a better one, or make 
any other changes that they think are for the better. The wise 
teacher is not distressed by changes of this sort made upon the 
paper. By degrees, the pupils who make them will learn to antic- 
ipate errors, and choose in advance the better word or the better 
form of sentence. We are not looking for perfect papers ; we are 
looking to develop the power that will later on make them less 
imperfect. This does not mean that neatness is not to be encour- 
aged and commended, or that slovenly work is not to be condemned. 
It means that we must be big enough not to fret over little things, 
so long as the children are clearly on their way to better writing. 
And every child is on his way to better writing who is getting the 
habit of scrutinizing his composition, and correcting and improv- 
ing his work before the paper is carried up to the teacher. 

It is not desirable that all pupils of a class should write upon 
the same subject at the same time. There is no greater drudgery 



no SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

than trying to write upon an unfamiliar subject or an uninterest- 
ing one. No habit of good writing can be formed without a 
groundwork of interest. Subjects should be personal. What 
subject that is worth writing about can be personal to forty indi- 
viduals ? The same subject for a whole class will, in most cases, 
require much oral development. Ideas must be drawn out of 
the class, or handed out to them ready-made by the teacher. 
Only the children whom the subject touches personally can con- 
tribute anything worth while to the preliminary oral discussion, 
and only these will write about it with any heart. The other 
papers will be weak imitations. 

SEVENTH GRADE 
ORAL 

(One-half of the language time in the seventh grade is given to oral 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

A seventh-grade pupil at the end of the year ought to be able, 
when called upon, to stand on both feet, away from the desk and 
talk for a minute or tvv^o upon a subject familiar to him in simple, 
clear, and grammatical English, with clear enunciation and a 
natural pitch of voice. 

The oral exercises should be planned and carried out as care- 
fully as the written exercises. Discuss the things that help to 
make a speaker interesting, such as a correct standing position, 
a pleasant quality of voice, clear enunciation, and a rate of utter- 
ance not too fast to be hard to follow and slow enough to insure 
clean-cut articulation ; eyes upon the schoolroom audience, not 
upon the floor or the ceiling; the manner of one interested in 
what he is saying and in the effect he desires to produce, instead 
of one performing a perfunctory or unwilling task which he wants 
to have done with as soon as possible. 



SEVENTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 121 

Teachers cannot be too often reminded that oral work is a great 
deal more important than written work, although in this grade an 
equal amount of the language time is devoted to each. Children 
who leave school from the seventh grade will probably have little 
occasion to write anything ; but they will talk every day of their 
lives, and their success in life will depend much more upon their 
ability to talk than upon their ability to write. Besides, chil- 
dren who are to be taught to write well must first be taught to 
talk well. There is scarcely a point in written composition that 
cannot be developed as effectively, and much more economically, 
in the oral exercise; viz. arrangement of ideas, correctness and 
variety of sentence structure, choice and variety of words. Then, 
too, the moral value of the training is great. When a boy's 
slouching, nerveless posture against his desk and his slovenly 
enunciation of disjointed half sentences have been exchanged for 
a body held erect, a voice and an enunciation that carry thought 
clearly stated, you have a boy who has gained in character as 
well as in ability to talk correctly upon his feet. 

Continue to emphasize the importance of good enunciation, 
not only in the oral language period, but in all recitations. The 
reading period ought to contribute more to this end than it usually 
does. The fact that every individual in the schoolroom audi- 
ence (including the teacher) holds a printed copy of what the 
pupil is reading aloud is not calculated to provide a very strong 
motive for clean-cut utterance. The listeners know what the 
pupil is reading, even if neither his voice nor his articulation is 
good. There is a growing suspicion that the oral reading period 
in the grammar grades is very wasteful of time as a means of teach- 
ing children to read, because the reading ability that will function 
most practically in the lives of children after their school days 
are over is not the ability to read aloud, but the ability to gather 
thought swiftly and accurately from the printed page — that is, 
the power to read silently. But so long as oral reading holds its 



122 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

large place in the daily program, it ought to be made as effective 
a means as possible to improve children's speech by training them 
in the right use of the voice, and by securing the best possible 
enunciation of the words they read. It is certain that the work 
in oral language, so far as clear utterance is concerned, would 
be greatly helped out by a greater emphasis upon these matters 
in the reading lesson. 

Teachers should re-read the chapter on "Teaching Pupils to 
Avoid the Trivial and Sensational in Personal Experience" 
(pp. 24-26). Study also the suggestions upon this point in the 
fifth-grade section. The illustrative compositions above the 
fourth grade all enforce this very important idea. 

II. Examples of Oral Composition. 

Note that in all the paragraphs the child's "experience" is ex- 
pressed in terms of thought rather than in terms of action. 

A GOOD LESSON FOR ME 

When our principal came into my room the other day, my teacher 
handed him a paper I had written. As he read it out loud to the 
pupils he kept stumbling over the words. I knew he didn't stumble 
because he didn't know how to read. I knew well enough it was be- 
cause my writing was not good. It was a good lesson for me. Now 
I am trying to write so people can read it. 

PLAYING HOSPITAL 

It was a very hot day and our patients were very restless. But in 
bed they had to stay. If we let them get up they would be sick much 
longer. When eating time came our patients did not seem sick at all, 
for they ate more than I could. But when medicine time came it 
was quite the other way. I wonder if in real hospitals some patients 
are like ours ^ 



SEVENTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 123 

DOING OUR BIT 

This morning a notice was read in our school about protecting 
war gardens. For my part I will do the best I can. I have a garden 
of my own and I know the work it takes to plant it and care for it. 
I hope every boy will do the best he can to protect every garden from 
injury and stealing. 

MOONLIGHT BASEBALL 

Nearly all my chums work- all day and cannot play ball until after 
supper. So we have to make the most of the time that is left. Some 
evenings we play until the moon comes out. If the moon were only 
brighter we could play as long as we wanted to. I guess it is a good 
thing it isn't, because there would be so many sleepy boys going to 
work mornings. 

III. Common Errors of Speech. 

"If to do were as easy as to know what 'twere good to do,'' teachers 
would simply have to teach children the rules they violate in 
their everyday speech, and the errors would straightway dis- 
appear. Unfortunately, correct speech is not acquired by a 
knowledge of rules. The rules of grammar do not fashion speech. 
They do not establish habits of correct usage; they only make 
that usage more intelligent. Therefore imitation, practice, and 
habit — not rules, formulas, and definitions — should be the 
watchwords of the teacher. It is constant use and practice 
under never-failing watch and correction that make pupils talk 
well. 

Two windows was broke. 

Who done it ? They et the cakes. 

We was to study history this period. The dog seen a squirrel. 

It don't matter. I ain't doin' nothin'. 

He come to school with me. 



124- SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Who you going for ? Me and my brother wrote it. 

Where's them two tickets ? 

We were to the show. My pen don't write good. 

That book learns you how to take care He had kind of a hard time. 

of animals. Draw it like I said. 

Shall I bring this book home ? I'm all better now. 

I wouldn't be left do it. 
Is every one in their place ? 
Those kind of flowers ain't pretty. 
I didn't go no place. 

He wouldn't of gone. She uster live on Elm St. 

Are they any pencils ? Can't you see 'em "? 

I'm doin' my work. Doncher see ^ 

IV. Comments and Cautions. 

The teacher must be convinced that it is supremely worth 
while to equip a child with the power to express what he thinks 
in direct and clean-cut sentences, however simple, and that clear 
expression reacts on clear thinking. 

Children talk the talk of the majority on the playground, on 
the streets, in their homes. The majority are careless of rules 
and ignorant of standards. With a fourth-grade vocabulary and 
fourth-grade habits of expression, a seventh- or eighth-grade 
child can make known most of his wants and most of his thoughts 
to his playmates and his family. The conversation that he hears 
passes on to him the worn coins of provincialism and bad English. 
For a few hours a day, five days out of seven, he is shut up in a 
different world, where the teacher, perhaps, as one pupil said, 
"always requests us to use good English." But what of it.^ 
Too often the only use for any English at all is for a few words in 
answer to rapid-fire questions, and nobody but the teacher has a 
chance to express herself. It is no wonder that children consider 
their habits of speech of little importance even in school, when 



SEVENTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 125 

the most continuous expression required of them is the answering 
of questions. If a teacher wishes to train children in right habits 
of expression, she must create opportunities for such expression ; 
she must learn to keep still and let the pupils talk. When the 
pupil does talk, the teacher should insist that he speak to the 
point and only to the point, answer the question and nothing but 
the question, and in the best words at his command. 

WRITTEN 

{One-half of the language time of the seventh grade is given to written 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

In the sixth grade some attention was given to one or two 
of the more elementary principles of sentence structure, still 
keeping within the limits of the simple sentence. Variety in 
sentence beginning was suggested, and the variety that results 
from changing occasionally the monotonous sequence of subject, 
verb, and object. In the seventh grade, if the teacher finds her 
class up to grade in the fundamentals of their written work, 
she should be encouraged to go a little farther into the study of 
sentence betterment. She should also devote a little attention 
to the study of choice of words. These matters have been post- 
poned until the seventh year, because the pupil does not earlier 
perceive the value of such things. Up to this time, we have 
aimed at copious and natural expression. Now we have arrived 
at the place where the pupil himself, if he has been led to become 
a willing producer of compositions expressing his own experi- 
ences and views of life, feels the need of learning how to say things 
better. This is the time, therefore, when children are not only 
willing, but eager, to study how they may contrive to say more 
effectively what they want to say. It is not to be expected, nor 
desired, that children in the grammar grades be taught many of 
the refinements of style. The business of the grammar school is 



126 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

to teach them to write correctly and clearly, and no teacher is 
to neglect the latter in her efforts to secure the effects that come 
from increased skill in handling sentences, or in the choice of 
words. It is better to know nothing of style than to sacrifice 
clearness and correctness in the process of getting it. The work 
here suggested should not be begun as class exercises until the 
second half of the year. By that time the teacher will know 
whether the children are ready for it ; and, in addition, the pupils 
will by that time have gained from their grammar work enough 
familiarity with the grammatical structure of the sentence to 
enable them to begin the work of expanding, and otherwise im- 
proving, their sentences more understandingly. These matters 
should deal only with the simplest and most useful points of style. 
The following ways of bettering the sentence are not thought 
to be beyond the capacity of seventh-grade pupils : 

1. Expanding the short simple sentence by amplifying the subject 
and predicate by (1) a word, (2) a phrase, (3) a clause. 

2. Combining sets of short sentences that have unity of thought 
into a single sentence. 

3. Contracting long sentences, by reducing a clause to a phrase, 
a phrase to a word. 

4. Seeking variety in sentence beginnings, and through mixing 
long and short sentences in the paragraph. 

The teacher should be on her guard not to overdo this con- 
scious manipulation of sentences, so as to produce an artificial 
style. It is the common experience of teachers of composition 
that if this work of expanding sentences is gone into mechani- 
cally and in wholesale fashion, its results are likely to be disap- 
pointing. In the effort of the pupils to put into a single sentence 
what before they were accustomed to express in two or three 
sentences, there is likely to appear a new awkwardness that is 
very disconcerting to the teacher. Only the teacher's good lan- 
guage sense will carry her successfully through these first ven- 
tures toward conscious style. 



SEVENTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 127 

The work of awakening in pupils a sense of word values is at- 
tended by no such danger, and becomes for children a most pleas- 
urable study, if the teacher herself has a genuine feeling for words 
and is sensitive to their power of suggestion. It is not expected 
that grammar school children will become expert in the use of 
exact, appropriate, and expressive words. All that teachers 
should hope to do, or try to do, is to awaken in their pupils the 
beginnings of an appreciation of words, so that some of them, at 
least, will not be satisfied with the meager stock of worn-out 
words with which many people are content to express themselves 
both in speech and writing. Dickens tells us of a young man 
in Doctor Blimber's school who was so badly taught that when 
he began to have whiskers he left off having brains. Most people 
stop learning words as soon as they have accumulated a vocab- 
ulary suflBcient to communicate their commonest wants, and go 
through life on a fourth-grade vocabulary. The school, there- 
fore, ought to do a little more than it has done to start the cur- 
rent of children's thought in the direction of a better choice of 
words in their speech and their writing. It is work that will 
not take much time. Occasional talks upon the value of expres- 
sive words, illustrated and reenforced by the reading of selections 
from writers who are acknowledged masters of the art of dic- 
tion, will do much to arouse a desire in the pupils to use a livelier 
verb here or a more expressive adjective there in their written 
paragraphs. Nothing is more valuable than the use of the 
'* model," unless it is the teacher's own sensitiveness to words 
aptly used and phrases happily turned. If the teacher who reads 
to her class a paragraph illustrating the use of "words fitly chosen " 
does not make manifest her own keen appreciation and delight, 
the art of the "model" will not be likely to impress her pupils. 

There are many text-books that deal admirably with the sub- 
jects of sentence betterment and the choice of words. A few are 
mentioned here. Most of them are high school text-books, and 
their treatment of the matters is too advanced for grammar 



128 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

school pupils. They are put here for the use of teachers, who will 
find in them many suggestions which they can use to advantage 
with their own classes. 

BETTERMENT OF THE SENTENCE 

Stebbins' "Sentence Improvement," all exercises for "Transforming 

Sentences." 
Hitchcock's "Practice Book in English Composition," pp. 119-136. 
Scott and Denny, "Elementary English Composition," pp. 80-100. 
Huntington's "Elementary English Composition," pp. 100-152. 
"Practice Work in English" (Knight), pp. 118-146. 
Bailey and Manley, Book II, pp. 124-130. 
Aldine Second Language Book, pp. 179, 180, 181, 195, 205. 
Gerrish and Cunningham, "Practical English Composition," pp. 169- 

215. 
Canby and Opdycke, "Elements of Composition," pp. 40-93. 
"Lessons in English," Scott-Southworth, Book II, pp. 120-129, 137- 

147, 192-206, etc. 

CHOICE OF WORDS 

"First Book of Composition" (Briggs and McKinney), pp. 55-75; 

183-193; 197-213. 
Brooks's "English Composition," I, pp. 132-145. 
Gerrish and Cunningham's "Practical English Composition," pp. 

216-224. 
Canby and Opdycke's "Elements of Composition," pp. 160-187. 
Macdonald's "Foundation English," pp. 38-70. 
Huntington's "Elementary Enghsh Composition," pp. 152-166. 
"Lessons in English," Scott-Southworth, Book I, pp. 66, 171, etc.; 

Book II, pp. 261-277. 

II. Technicalities. 

Review the technicalities taught in the earlier grades, when- 
ever the written work of your class indicates the need of review. 
Do not waste time in reviewing, just for the sake of reviewing. 



SEVENTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 129 

Take care that no time is spent on technicalities which are not 
required, and which have been purposely omitted from this 
course. 

In the second half of the year, it may become necessary to 
give some attention to the use of the comma within the sen- 
tence. The restriction of the written sentence to the simple 
form in grades below the seventh has made unnecessary any 
reference to this use of the comma before. Presumably the 
work of expanding the sentence, which is to be taken up in the 
second half of the seventh year (see "Written Aims") will result 
in the more general use of the longer sentence, which may be of 
such form as to require the use of commas to separate the mem- 
bers. Many pupils will use the comma naturally in this way. 
Indeed, most children punctuate their sentences without being 
told how to do it. They absorb the idea unconsciously from 
the punctuation of the matter they read in and' out of school. 
There may be no need of your teaching this use of the comma 
at all. And unless the failure to use it is general, it would be 
best not to bother about it. If it is taught at all, it should be 
taught only in its very simplest uses. Children cannot make 
fine distinctions. The teacher who harps on the use of commas 
will find a great many of them in her pupils' papers, but a large 
proportion of them will be in the wrong place. 

Spend no time on the comma in a series or on the comma in 
direct address. Spend very little time upon quotation marks, 
and make no reference to "broken" or "divided" quotations. 
See that the punctuation of the letter form is thoroughly known. 

III. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

(Review words are printed in italics.) 



absence 


describe 


their 


all ready 


friend 


there 


all right 


laughed 


too 



130 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



already 


library 


truly 


attacked 


loose 


weather 


believe 


minute 


wholly 


certainly 


perhaps 


written 


changing 


really 




choose 


surprised 




anxious 


disappeared 


necessary 


chief 


finally 


precede 


copied 


foreign 


principal 


cordially 


government 


probably 


despair 


grammar 


respectfully 


disagreeable 


judgment 


sincerely 



IV. Written Standards. 

The selections printed in this course as examples of oral and 
written composition (except some which are specially indicated) 
are free from errors of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This 
does not make them any less useful as standards than if the child- 
ish errors had been retained. It is not expected that children are 
going to write papers that are mechanically perfect from begin- 
ning to end. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the rela- 
tively simple requirements for written work laid down in this 
course of study make for conditions much more favorable for 
correct work upon the part of the pupils than was the case when 
the requirements were less definite and the amount of writing 
larger. The restriction of the sentences below the seventh grade 
to the simple form, except in the case of pupils who have more 
than ordinary language power, will keep out of the compositions 
most of the loose and disjointed construction that characterizes 
children's unrestricted writing. The errors, therefore, will be 
chiefly those of spelling and grammar. Children can always be 
counted upon to furnish their quota of such errors. They would 
not be children, if they did not. Still, the ideal of both teacher 
and pupil should be a paragraph free from errors of this very 



SEVENTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 131 

sort, and for that reason the printed standards have been made 
free from them. 

HELPING MY COUNTRY 

Every summer since I can remember we have had flowers growing 
in our yard. This year on account of the necessity for food for the 
soldiers we have very few flowers, but instead a great many vegetables. 
Our lettuce is nearly ready for eating. The tomatoes are a foot 
high and are beginning to look very rugged. No one in my family 
has a guilty conscience for not doing something for his country. 

V. Comments and Cautions. 

The idea that criticism must be helpful, sympathetic, and 
constructive needs to be kept in mind. Webster defines criti- 
cism as "the art of judging with knowledge and propriety of the 
beauties and faults of a literary performance." Too often in 
school composition only the latter half of the definition, "judg- 
ing of the faults," is considered criticism, with the result that 
the child becomes discouraged and indifferent to his writing. 
Especially is this true when the corrections are numerous. Some 
mistakes (except of form) should pass unnoticed with many 
pupils. What is the good of having papers corrected and re- 
corrected until all errors disappear and little remains of the 
original except the handwriting? Such papers are not evidence 
of the children's ability to express themselves in good English, 
but rather of the teacher's ability to substitute her knowledge for 
the pupil's, perhaps without realizing that she is doing so. On 
the other hand, the teacher who can stimulate her pupils to 
greater efforts by her judicious appreciation of what they have 
already done will succeed in making them enthusiastic users of 
English. A sense of humor is what we need, not sarcasm. 

Letter writing should be an important part of written compo- 
sition in every year above the third. The letter form should be 
strictly in accordance with the standards printed in the Appendix 



132 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

of the Course. The body of the letter should be always a single 
paragraph, of a length corresponding to that of the written stand- 
ard for the grade. This requires that the letters be written on 
some single topic that makes suitable material for a letter. They 
should not be composed of rambling "miscellanies." The letters 
printed on page 93 of the Course suggest some natural uses of 
letters that may be enlarged and adapted to suit the needs of 
older pupils. Letter writing offers an unrivaled field for the 
expression of the child's personality. 



EIGHTH GRADE 
ORAL 

(One-half of the language time in the eighth grade is given to oral 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

The aim in oral work for the eighth grade is, as was set forth 
in the foreword, to turn out pupils at the end of the year able to 
stand before the class and talk for a minute or two upon a subject 
within the range of their knowledge or experience, speaking plainly, 
in clean-cut sentences, and without common grammatical mistakes. 
The points emphasized in the seventh year (erect standing, clear 
enunciation, etc.), should be reemphasized in the eighth grade. 

Debates in which many pupils will participate very briefly 
furnish excellent opportunity for training in talking clearly and 
to the point. The management by the pupils of the regular 
morning exercises, of special day exercises, and occasionally of 
the recitation, gives opportunity for the exercise of initiative and 
responsibility, and cultivates self-possession and self -poise. A 
teacher's success in accomplishing results in oral composition lies 
in her ability to arouse the interest of her pupils, in furnishing 
real motives and the most natural conditions for the work, in her 



EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 133 

skill in directing the choice of topics, and in her power to make 
the criticism encouraging, helpful, and constructive. 

II. Examples of Oral Composition. 

IT PAYS TO BE READY 

It was the oral language period, and at last my name was called. 
I had no composition ready. We had several visitors and their eyes 
were fixed upon me. What opinion would the visitors form about 
me ? What would they say about pur language work ? I was terribly 
frightened and terribly sorry. Somehow all of a sudden I picked 
up my courage and gave a short composition. When I sat down and 
saw the visitors looked pleased, I was a happy girl. But never again 
shall I come to school without having thought of something to talk 
about in the oral language period. 

DEMONSTRATING 

Father put in his application to have a garage built in the yard 
for the store truck. That afternoon a man that we knew came with 
a new seven-sea ter Packard and took us for a ride. As we spun along 
the boulevard, he explained how to operate it. Suddenly he said, "Mr. 
Hill, this would be a good car for your family." Father had not 
guessed his motive until then. Although we have no intentions of 
buying one I wish a few more demonstrators would come around. 

RED FOR DANGER 

Red means danger, but I paid no heed to the warning. I love to 
wear big stiff bows on my hair, and my fingers were just itching 
to get hold of a nice big red hair ribbon that belonged to my sister. 
One day when she had gone out I took the ribbon from its box and 
wore it. I was very proud of my beautiful big red bow. I wore it 
two or three days, but mariaged to take it off and hide it under my coat 
before I entered the house. One night having something on my 
mind, I forgot to remove the ribbon and went singing into the house. 
My song soon stopped however for my sister spied her ribbon. To 
tell what followed would bring back too painful memories to me. 



134 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

WAITING UNTIL YOU'RE TOLD 

Sometimes it is a good thing to wait for orders. It was so the other 
day when I wanted to telephone to Haverhill. It costs ten cents to 
telephone to Haverhill — and that's the price of two shows. I 
found that out before I went into the pay station. So when I found 
a slot that had the words "ten cents" over it, I dropped my treasure 
into it. I took off the receiver, and told the operator the number 
I wanted. In a few seconds I heard Central say "Ten cents, please." 
I tried to explain that I had already dropped in my money, but it 
was like talking to a dead man. Needless to say I walked out a sadder 
and wiser boy. 

FLUFFY'S SHOWER BATH 

One warm night Fluffy, our pet kitten, slipped out of the house 
and when we tried to catch her, she ran under the piazza. I tried 
hard to get her to come, but coaxing did no good. Finally I thought 
of a new scheme. Taking the hose I turned it on full force under the 
piazza. Out came Fluffy like a shot and dashed into the house. She 
didn't look very fluffy for a while. The next time she fails to come 
when I call her, I shall have to give her another shower bath. 

"THE LOST PRINCE" 

Last year in the seventh grade our teacher read us many interesting 
books. Among these was Burnett's "The Lost Prince." Although 
it was not a girl's book, I can truthfully say that most of the girls 
enjoyed it immensely. It has a strong plot, and it holds the atten- 
tion to the end. Our teacher usually reads to us for about five 
minutes in the afternoon just before dismissal, but if we scored one 
hundred per cent in spelling we had the pleasure of hearing her read 
for half an hour. Each day I went home full of praises of the won- 
derful book. At Christmas I was fortunate enough to receive a fine 
copy of the book I like so well. 

A WRONG IMPRESSION 

I couldn't understand my aunt's enthusiasm because she had a 
box seat at the theatre. I thought a box would be a very uncom- 



EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 



135 



fortable seat and I was sure I didn't want to sit on one. One day I 
went to a show with her, and I wanted to know where they kept the 
box seats. When I saw what they really were, I was very much 
surprised. I'm sure I would be enthusiastic too, if I could sit in one. 

WHEN A JOKE MORE THAN FAILED 

Card day never did appeal to me. At each step I stop to look 
at my card to see if by any chance my fairy godmother has changed 
the mark. But it always remains the same and that's pretty poor. 
When I reached home one card day I found my mother waiting for 
me. Thinking that a little joking would take her mind off the card 
I said, "With my regards." She looked first at the card and then 
over her spectacles at me. The affair that followed (in which my 
father's shaving strap figured) is not pleasant to think of. The 
worst of it was that when she finished my mother said calmly, 
"With my regards." 

HI. Common Errors of Speech. 

(Note. — The teacher should read the chapter on " Common Errors of 
Speech " which is printed in an Appendix, and the comments made under 
this section in all the grades from the first to the seventh.) 



There is enough pencils. 
I done my examples. 
You was right. 
Neither of the girls have it. 
It don't seem right. 



We all seen the ball game. 
Two of the wheels come off. 
I ain't got none. 



Who did this come from ? 
He'll meet you and I. 



I like them colors. 

I heard of you leaving. 



I left my book to home. 
She is all better to-day. 
I have quite a few pears. 
I like these kind of examples. 



I've learned it to her. 
I don't know if I shall go. 
Do it like they do. 
Where are you at ? 



136 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

They wouldn't leave him play. Each may take their pencils. 

They done it pretty good. The lesson ain't in the book. 

Can I take my history home ? 
That's different than I expected. 

I must of been late. He makes 'em think ! 

I reco'nized the story. 

IV. Comments and Cautions. 

Should the pupils' answers to all questions be made in com- 
plete statements ? That depends. While a subject is being 
developed by the teacher in logical order by questions, a full 
statement might hinder the quick grasp of a point on the part 
of the pupil, and might break the train of the teacher's ques- 
tioning. At such times, full statements are not necessary and 
need not be insisted upon. The same is true in conversational 
exercises involving questions. Insistence upon complete state- 
ments at such times would be establishing a condition that is 
unnatural, unusual in life, and peculiar to the schoolroom. In the 
recitation, however, the answers should be given, almost always, 
in complete statements. 

It will not do to pass by mistakes on the ground that the pupil 
cannot think and speak correctly at the same time. That is 
precisely what he must learn to do, and he must carefully practice 
it in every study. 

Every recitation should strengthen the habit of connected think- 
ing and correct speech, cast into complete sentences. 

WRITTEN 

(One-half of the language time in the eighth grade is given to written 

work.) 
I. Aims. 

This course of studj^ has been built upon the conviction that 
the written language work in the grammar school should be con- 



EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 137 

fined to a few fundamental things, and that there should be con- 
stant opportunity for practice in these few fundamental things. 
In the preface the following standard was set up as the goal of 
grammar school teaching. It is believed that the ability the 
standard calls for is the kind that will function most usefully 
in the life of the average grammar school graduate, and that the 
degree of ability it represents is one reasonably possible to be 
acquired by children of ordinary capacity during eight years of 
school. The standard was thus defined : 

"The ability to write with fair facility an original para- 
graph upon a subject within the range of the pupil's experi- 
ence or interests." 

Such a paragraph should show : 

1. An absolute mastery of "the sentence idea." 

2. Freedom from glaring grammatical mistakes. 

3. Correct spelling of all ordinary words. 

4. Unfailing use of the commonest marks in punctuation. 

In developing this power to write, each grade has its share 
of the work to do. Each grade has its own standard of accom- 
plishment set down for it in black and white. With the work 
each grade is called upon to do and with the standard of writing 
ability each grade is expected to reach, the eighth-grade teacher 
should make herself thoroughly familiar. Before starting upon 
the new work assigned to her grade, she should ascertain what 
the new class knows about written composition when it comes to 
her and what language habits it possesses. Upon the basis of 
the knowledge thus discovered, she should then plan her work 
for the year with a view to round out and complete the training 
which the course of study as a whole contemplates. If deficiencies 
of a general character are revealed by these early tests of their 
writing ability, the teacher must face the task of removing them 
so far as she can. There is no other year left in which to do it. 



138 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

It is important, of course, that the abiHty of the new class should 
be tested on the basis of seventh-grade standards, not of eighth- 
grade standards. One of the reasons why teachers so often find 
fault at first with the pupils who come up to them from a lower 
grade is because their judgment of the newcomers in September 
is unconsciously colored by their memory of what the previous 
class was able to do in June. But if any large portion of the class 
is found deficient in the fundamentals of writing, these matters 
must be brought up to the standard before any of the advance 
work suggested for the grade is attempted. It is of no use to 
try to teach the rudiments of style to children who cannot write 
correct sentences. 

The advance work for the grade, when the class is ready for 
it, should be a continuation of the work in sentence betterment 
and in the choice of words which was begun in the seventh grade. 
The sentence work should include transforming, combining, con- 
densing, and otherwise varying them, with the purpose of making 
children see how they can say what they have to say more pleas- 
ingly and more effectively. This work should not be overdone, 
however. The most that is sought through the work in sentence 
structure is to remove from the written paragraphs the monotony 
of the ''primer sentence," which has been purposely cultivated 
in the grades below the seventh. A good many children naturally 
use the longer sentence, and to such children its use has not been 
denied in the lower grades. The short sentence has been exclu- 
sively required only from those who show themselves unable to 
use any other kind without getting into trouble. If, therefore, 
the eighth-grade teacher finds most of the class using in their 
compositions a reasonable variety of sentence structure, she will 
be wise not to spend very much time on the sentence work. It is 
a matter that has to be left largely to the teacher's judgment. 

The books mentioned under this topic in the seventh grade 
treat fully the subject of sentence improvement^ and to these the 



EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 139 

eighth-grade teacher is referred. Most of these books are not 
adapted for use with grammar school pupils ; but the teacher will 
find much material in them which she can adapt to the needs and 
ability of her class. The prose literature that the children read 
offers an excellent field for the study of sentence structure. Lead 
them constantly to observe how good writers manage their sen- 
tences. Similarly, passages selected from authors not read by 
the children may be reduced to short sentences by the teacher 
and given to the children to combine into longer ones. After- 
wards let them compare their efforts with the passage as the 
author wrote it. Exercises in combining sentences which are 
made up by the teacher or taken at random from a text-book 
generally leave the pupils uncertain of the success of their at- 
tempts, because of the lack of any positive authority as to what 
the best form of the combinations should be. The opportunity 
afforded to compare the pupils' efforts with the author's original 
adds greatly to the interest of the exercise, and the frequent act 
of comparing their work with that of writers of repute impresses 
upon them, more deeply than any amount of talking can do, the 
difference between their crude work and the finished workmanship 
of the master writer. If pupils can be brought to appreciate 
understandingly the art of good writers and be led by reason of it 
to try to improve their own workmanship, the chief object of this 
work will have been gained. Always, however, the teacher must 
guard against the mistake of making children so conscious of their 
style that it will spoil their freedom of expression. There is 
danger, too, that too much work in combining and transforming 
sentences as a separate exercise will lead to an artificial style, or 
what is worse, a "wordy" style. Sentences are not improved 
by putting more words into them than are necessary, but chil- 
dren's well-intentioned efforts to round out their sentences often 
result in making them merely "wordy." A clause is no stronger 
than a phrase, nor a phrase than a word, unless something is 
distinctly gained by the employment of the longer expression. 



140 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

The monotonous "which" clause — one of the first products of 
exercises in combining short sentences — is Ukely to prove a 
nuisance unless the teacher knows how to head it off. 

This work in sentence improvement should go hand in hand 
with the writing of original paragraphs, and should not sidetrack 
the latter for any considerable period during the year. The only 
way the teacher can be sure that the special exercises in sentence 
structure are doing her pupils any good is the evidence of better 
sentences in the original paragraphs they write from day to day. 

In the seventh grade a beginning was made to teach children 
to be more attentive to the words they use in their written para- 
graphs. This point should be made still more of in the eighth 
grade. The teacher should do all she can to teach them the 
value of expressive words. This work should not occupy any 
particular period during the year, but should run through all the 
teaching from the first. The books mentioned under this section 
in the seventh grade will give teachers excellent material and sug- 
gestions, although the treatment of the subject in most of these 
books is of a character more suitable to high school pupils. The 
literature read in class furnishes a constant supply of material, 
if the teacher will make good use of it. In addition, she should 
from time to time read to the children paragraphs illustrating 
the use of apt and expressive words. The books referred to con- 
tain many such paragraphs. An excellent exercise may be pro- 
vided in this fashion : The teacher chooses a paragraph partic- 
ularly strong in respect to the choice of words. This she "re- 
writes," substituting "weak" words for the author's effective 
ones. The paragraph in this shape is then written upon the board, 
or a copy of it given to each pupil. The pupils are then instructed 
to substitute for the "weak" words (which the teacher has indi- 
cated in her copy by underscoring) words which the children 
think are better ones. After they have done their best, they are 
then shown the author's original. The value of this exercise lies 



EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 141 

in the opportunity it gives the pupils to compare their best efforts 
with the work of the trained writer. 

It is not expected that eighth-grade children will become ex- 
pert in the use of words in a single year. The chief thing to 
be sought through this kind of teaching is to train children to 
give attention to the words they read and the words they write, 
so that all of them will not be content all the time to put down the 
first word that comes into their minds. 

Care should be taken that children are not led to believe that 
we want them to use "flowery" language. This is no longer a 
merit in any writing, and is particularly bad form in children's 
writing. Naturalness, simplicity, and sincerity are the qualities 
of style to be encouraged, and the moment children begin to be 
"flowery" these qualities disappear from their writing. They 
have at their command only a few worn-out phrases, like "the 
murmuring brook," "the moon's silvery light," "the white 
blanket of the snow, " and similar stale and sentimental common- 
places. Besides, they lack that sure sense of appropriateness 
which saves the trained writer from offending against good taste 
by overadornment of language. The two paragraphs which 
follow illustrate the effect of the conventional phrase and worn- 
out diction, just referred to, in contrast with that which comes 
from the use of fresh, natural, and vivid words. Each describes 
a day in spring. 

"Canoeing is an ideal sport for lovers of nature. A spring day 
is a day which the canoeist longs for. It enables him to drink in 
nature with all its splendors. The leaves of the trees are just be- 
ginning to sprout and convey an expression of joy to humanity. 
The birds are chirping cheerfully and welcome you with a beckon 
of the head, as you glide softly over the smooth waters. The 
stream flows on with the utmost vigor, and the sound of its ripple 
mingles with the songs of the birds. Everything is in harmony with 
nature. Even your canoe appears to be enjoying the scene, for it 
seems to require less strength than ever to propel it. But at last 



142 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



you draw a deep sigh of regret when the veil of darkness falls and 
puts an end to your enjoyment." 

"There is one day when all things are tired, and the very smells, 
as they drift on the heavy air, are old and used. One cannot ex- 
plain this, but it feels so. Then there is another day — to the eye 
nothing whatever has changed — when all the smells are new and 
delightful, and the whiskers of the jungle people quiver to their roots, 
and the winter hair comes away from their sides in long, draggled 
locks. Then, perhaps, a little rain falls, and the trees and the bushes 
and the bamboos and the mosses and the juicy-leaved plants wake 
with a noise of growing that you can almost hear, and under this 
noise runs, day and night, a deep hum. That is the noise of the 
Spring — a vibrating boom which is neither bees, nor falling water, 
nor the wind in the tree tops, but the purring of the warm, happy 
world." 

It is not to be expected that children can be taught to write 
of a spring day as Kipling can; but at least they can be pre- 
vented from writing in the fashion of the first paragraph. 



II. Words for Special Spelling Drill. 

(Review words are printed in italics.) 



almost 


friend 


receive 


anxious 


government 


respectfully 


beginning 


grammar 


separate 


believe 


heard 


sincerely 


business > 


judgment 


their 


changing 


knew 


there 


chief 


laughed 


too 


coming 


minute 


tried 


different 


necessary 


truly 


disappeared 


oblige 


using 


disappoint 


principal 


written 


foreign 


really 





EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 143 

accept excitement ninth 

college finally occasion 

disease immediately preferred 

eighth ' knowledge proceed 

in. Written Standards. 

The paragraphs that follow, like the illustrations printed in the 
oral section for this grade, are typical of the kind of paragraph- 
compositions that most children who have had eight years of con- 
tinuous training according to the method of teaching composition 
this book prescribes ought to be able to write. All the paragraphs 
are short. The longest of them contains eight sentences; the 
average is under six. Notwithstanding, each paragraph carries 
with it a sense of completeness. Each one, too, has the quality 
of being genuinely personal and genuinely childlike. The sub- 
jects are all drawn from experience, and from the right kind of 
"experience" — the kind that lies within the pupil rather than 
outside of him. There are evidences of trained workmanship ; the 
beginning sentences catch our attention and the closing ones supply 
the necessary finishing touch. 

There are probably some pupils in every eighth-grade class who 
couldn't write a paragraph like these to save their lives. There 
are so many grown-up people in the world who are incapable of 
being interesting that a few of them must have been born so. 
But the majority of children who have been brought up on this 
plan of composition work under good teachers will find themselves 
at the end of their grammar school course able to turn off para- 
graphs having something of the quality of those printed here, 
and find considerable pleasure in the exercise. 

WORTH MORE THAN MARKS 

When my history notebook was handed back to me I wondered 
what my mark would be. With shaky hands I opened the cover. 
On a sheet of paper inside were the words, "Very good" and under- 



144 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

neath the teacher had written, "A notebook that it is a pleasure to 
correct." I tell you those few words were worth more to me than 
all the "very goods" I ever got. I think every girl would rather 
have her teacher write a little word of praise on her paper than to 
put down on it the highest mark there is. 

REWARDED HOPES 

For weeks I had been hoping my birthday present would be a tele- 
graph outfit. At last my birthday arrived and was going by very 
swiftly without even a sign of a present. When the clock struck three 
I was ready to cry. When I was about giving up all hopes of receiving 
even a miserly present my father came in and handed me a box. 
Sure enough it was a telegraph outfit. They say a patient waiter 
is no loser. I wasn't very patient but I waited a long time for my 
reward. 

NOBODY'S CAT 

Nobody owned the jet-black cat that came to live in my back 
garden, but I could not take her into the house because my yellow 
cat would have eaten her. After awhile I noticed that she drove 
off other cats that wanted to come into our garden, a thing that our 
cat was too lazy to do. So in spite of objections I took her in and 
adopted her. Nobody's cat was useful to somebody, while some- 
body's cat was useful to nobody. 

MY LIGHT-HEARTED SISTER 

Every night when my sister comes home from work she begins 
singing. If she only sang sweetly I wouldn't mind, but she sings 
so loud that she gives us all a headache. When my mother asks 
her to help in the housework she says she is not feeling well. But 
she can't be very sick when she sings all the time. But I suppose 
we ought to be glad she can sing after her long day's work in the 
mill. A singing sister is better than a scolding sister. 

ALL FOR THE BEST 

As a girl in my room was giving a language story this morning 
I thought I noticed she had a gold tooth. I looked closer and saw 



EIGHTH GRADE ASSIGNMENT 145 

that I was mistaken. Perhaps it is just as well she hasn't one. If she 
had, I know I would always be looking at it instead of listening to her 
composition. Then if our teacher called on me to criticise her story 
I wouldn't know what to say, because all my attention would have 
been given to Mildred's shining tooth. 

DOING TWO GOOD THINGS AT ONCE 

Etta was ill, so mother assigned me to do the kitchen floor. It is 
a task that I hate like fury to do, but I didn't say a word of complaint. 
It wouldn't have done any good if I had. I stopped every now and 
then to practice receiving my diploma. All the girls are nervous 
about that, for fear they won't do it right. So with scrubbing and 
practicing the hour passed quickly. "It is not as bad as I had 
thought it would be," I said when I had finished. For had I not 
learned to take the diploma correctly, as well as to help mother out of 
a tight place "? 

A GOOD LITTLE MOTHER 

There is a little Italian girl on my street who is a very good little 
mother. Every day when she comes home from school she has to 
take care of her sister's baby. When it cries Angelina takes it in 
her arms and walks up and down the sidewalk until it falls asleep. 
Then she puts the baby into its carriage. Angelina's sister pays 
her five cents a week, which is hardly any pay at all. I think she 
does it because she loves the little baby. Anyway the baby gets 
better care from her than she would from the mother. 



APPENDIX I 

Sounds Presenting Difficulty, and Some Exercises Designed to 
Improve Enunciation and Pronunciation 

(a) Sounds Presenting Difficulty 

1. The final g omitted in ing : comin' instead of coming. 

2. Dropping final t ov d: toV instead of told; an' instead of and. 

3. Introducing a letter or syllable wrongly, e.g. umherella instead 
of umbrella. 

4. The two sounds of th, the aspirate and the voiced sound, as in 
pith and then, are confused. Thus with is made to rhyme with jpith. 
Th becomes t as in frow for throw. 

5. The letter r is often added when none ought to be heard, as 
"I saw-r a ship." 

6. Careful attention should be given to the proper pronunciation 
of the vowel u as in Tuesday, duty. 

7. th is often pronounced as cZ or ^ — as found in dem for them or 
free for three. 

(b) Some Difficulties Met by Foreign Children 

The foreign-born child has special difficulties in pronunciation. 
The following are the most common : 

1. Mispronunciation of ng, final and medial. Final ng (as in 
"sing" or any present participle) is frequently pronounced as nk. 
Medial ng is frequently mispronounced ; e.g. "singing" is pronounced 
"sing-ing." "Finger" is sometimes mispronounced as "fing-er," 
"single" as "sing-le," "linger" as "ling-er," "hanger" as "hang-ger," 
"anger" as "ang-er," "bringer" as "bring-ger," etc., and "len'th" 
and "stren'th" are heard for "length" and "strength." 

2. s and sh are apt to be improperly vocalized, becoming z and zh ; 
as "acid" becomes "azid," "creases" becomes "creazes," "assure" 

147 



148 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



becomes "azhure," etc. On the other hand, many say "wass" for 
"was," "whereass" for "whereas," etc. 

3. The most common mispronunciation of vowels is the confound- 
ing of the sounds of oi and er-, by which "oil" becomes "earl," 
"join" becomes "jern," "oyster" becomes "erster," etc. 

(c) Words Commonly Mispronounced 

The following words illustrate some of the sounds that are 
troublesome, or which people are too lazy to bring out clearly. 
The teacher can add many words to the list. 



arctic 


elm 


new 


again 


every 


often 


athlete 


fellow 


overalls 


attacked 


general 


perhaps 


asked 


geography 


pillow 


been 


govern 


poem 


business 


government 


poetry 


catch 


grocery 


potato 


cemetery 


height 


recognize 


children 


history ' 


strength 


chimney 


hollow 


studied 


deaf 


hundred 


sword 


delivery 


jaw 


though 


depths 


jewelry 


thought 


different 


kept 


through 


discovery 


law 


to-morrow 


drawing 


length 


usually 


drowned 


library 


yellow 


eleven 


machinery 





(d) Suggested Drills 

Drill on words and phrases like the following can be made very 
helpful : 



APPENDIX I 149 

1. Sleep, sleek, sleet, sleeve. 

2. Twelfth, breadth, length, depth, strength, width. 

3. Weight, height. 

4. Particularly, especially, certainly. 

5. Just, worst, crust, finest, youngest, greatest, breakfast. 

6. Kindness, goodness, helpless, thoughtless, careless. 

7. Give me, let me, was he, I don't know, don't you, at all. 

8. Whittle, whistle, wheel, white, when, whether, which. 

9. Would you, could you, did you, can you, had you. 

10. This one, that one, which one, let her go, let him do it. 

(e) In General 

1. Give drill lessons to correct faults of enunciation, until the 
pupils form the habit of avoiding the faults in ordinary speech. 

2. Show the proper position and use of the necessary organs of 
speech involved in the production of the correct sound. 

3. Pronounce slowly, enunciate clearly and distinctly. With for- 
eign children sound is of greater importance than the form in the 
beginning. 

4. Give special attention to ear- training. 

5. Train the pupils to listen carefully to the teacher, to watch her 
speak, and to imitate her. 

6. Insist all the time upon careful enunciation, exact enunciation 
— no ''winders,'' no "wanHer,'' or "saw 'im,'' no "yeh's" or "yep's'' 
for "yes." 

APPENDIX II 

Selected Language Games, with an Analysis of the Common Errors 
in the Speech of Children 

An Analysis of the Common Errors in Children's Speech 

An inventory of the prevailing errors in the speech of children 
is a necessary preliminary to any rational attempt to improve 
the speech of children. Such an investigation was recently made 
in a school system comprising 3500 pupils. The teachers were 



150 



SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 



requested to note the language errors of their pupils, and to clas- 
sify them as verb-errors, double negatives, mispronunciations 
that could be consistently classed as language errors, misuse of 
pronouns, adverbial errors, and colloquialisms. 

The total number of mistakes observed, classified, and ex- 
pressed in per cents are given here : 



Verb-errors . . . 
Double Negatives . 
Mispronunciation . 
Misuse of Pronouns 
Adverbial Errors . 
Colloquialisms . . 



First Grade 



48.3 

3.6 

16.8 

18.8 

5.3 

7.2 



Eighth Grade 



38.6 
2.9 

19. 

18.3 
6.9 

14.3 



All Grades 



40.1 

3.4 

20.4 

17.2 

5.8 
12.9 



It will be seen from the above that : 

(1) The range of errors is small. The poor English heard is 
due to frequent repetition of a few errors. 

(2) The percentage of each class of error is relatively constant 
for all grades. 

(3) This is evidence that persistent and organized effort was 
not made to eliminate the errors. The task, before it was an- 
alyzed, seemed so complex and hopeless, that teachers' efforts 
were scattered and futile. 

(4) The verb-errors form a very large percentage of the total 
errors in each grade. 

(5) Of the verb forms, almost one-half (see analysis below) 
are due to confusing the past tense and perfect participle. A 
dozen verbs form the bulk of the errors. 



A further analysis of the verb-errors brought out the following 
facts : 



APPENDIX II 151 

(a) Confusing past tense and perfect participles occasioned 
nearly 50 % of the verb-errors. 

(b) Mistakes in past tense and perfect participle of "see," 
"come," "do," and "go" represented one-tenth of all the errors 
scored. 

(c) Nine other verbs caused Qi% of all the errors. 

(d) If children could be taught to use correctly the past tense 
and perfect participle of thirteen verbs, one-sixth of all the errors 
made by these children could be eliminated. 

An analysis of the common errors in the speech of all school 
children anywhere would probably result in figures very similar 
to those that have been quoted. That is, about half the errors 
would be found to be those of verb forms, and a half of this half 
would be the result of misusing the forms of the past tense and 
the past participle. The preponderance of verb-errors is readily 
explained by the much more frequent use of the verb than of the 
other words open to misuse — like the pronoun and the adverb. 
The proportion of errors in the other items of the analysis would 
in all probability be found to approximate very closely that 
revealed by the investigation here described. Human nature 
is much the same everywhere, and it has no more common expres- 
sion than the manner in which it abuses the English language. 

Formal Language Games 

One of the most successful means of correcting bad language 
forms in the primary grades and establishing right habits of speech 
is the formal language game. In these the child is unconscious 
of the ultimate aim of the teacher, though fully aware of the fact 
that a certain form must be used in order that the game be won. 
The teacher, however, is more successful with results than if she 
were to explain her intentions. She secures the functioning of 
language at the very time it is needed. The drill is not something 



152 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

wholly apart. It is interesting, because of the activity. Repe- 
tition is called forth by a natural situation, and the desired ex- 
pression is in the focus of the child's attention. 

A few games that have proved very successful in the classroom 
are given as illustrations of the idea. The resourceful teacher 
will invent as many more as she will need. 

Drill 1 

Throw, Threw — Catch, Caught 

Have two lines of pupils standing opposite each other. 

Consider children in their seats as spectators. 

One child throws the ball to the opposite, and says : 

"I throw the ball." (or) "I am throwing the ball." 
The other child says : 

*'I catch the ball." (or) "I am catching the ball." 
Ask child in seat : "What did he do .?" 
"He threw the ball." 

"He caught the ball." i Spectators tell this. 
"He dropped the ball." 
The teacher throws the ball, and asks : 
"What am I doing .?" 
- "What did I do.?" 

Drill 2 

"Zi Isn't'' 

Leader. "I've thought of a word that rhymes with door.'* 
Jimmie. "Is it part of any apple.?" 
Leader. "No, it isn't 'core.'" 
Ethel. "Is it what I did to my dress .?" 
Leader. "No, it isn't 'tore.'" 
Jean. "Is it what lions do.?" 
Leader. "Yes, it is 'roar.'" 

Now Jean, the successful, "thinks of a word" and the guessing 
continues by definitions. 



APPENDIX II 153 

This game never fails to give pleasure. Ideas struggle for ex- 
pression in comprehensible definitions and the rhythmic formula, 
"No, it isn't . . . ," repeated again and again makes the correct 
verb form pleasantly familiar. 



Drill 3 

Drill on Use of ''Saw" 

Place a number of objects on teacher's desk. 
Have a row of children pass the desk, and tell what they saw. 
Limit them to the number of objects they must tell, by saying : 
" "You may tell two objects." 

"You may tell three objects." 
The next child may tell four objects. 
Look out for careful placing of "and." 

"I saw a cap." (Not "sorra cap.") 

"I saw a cap and a book." 

"I saw a book, a marble, a top and a ball." 
In like manner 

take — took 

find — found 

bring to me — brought 



Drill 4 

Polite Use of "7" 

Teacher. "Mary and Alice may walk across the room." 

Teacher. "Mary, tell me what you and Alice did." 

Mary. "Me and Alice walked across the room." 

Alice. "I and Mary walked across the room." 

Teacher. "The polite way is to name Mary first." 

Alice. "Mary and I walked across the room." 

Teacher. "Alice told me very nicely. Mary, you tell me." 



Other corrections may be taken up in this way. 



154 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Drill 5 

It is I. It is He. It is She 

A child stands in the corner blindfolded. Another pupil stands 
beside him not blindfolded. A third child steps up and taps the 
first one on the back. Number one says, "Who is it.?" The child 
who did the tapping says, "It is I." The blindfolded pupil then 
gives the name of the child he thinks it is. If he guesses correctly, 
the pupil not blindfolded says, "It is he," or "It is she." If not, he 
says, "It is not she," or "It is not he." "It is not Miss ..." 

Drill 6 

Drill on: "/ seen it"; "he done it"; "me and him"; "Z got it off 

him"; etc. 

Hold up a book or pencil. Ask these questions of different pupils : 
" What do you see ? " " What did he see ? " " What has he seen .? " 
"What have they seen.?" "What did they see.?" The answers 
to these questions and many more of the same type will call for the 
correct use of see, saw, seen. 

"What did John and you see.?" "What did he and you see.?" 
These questions call for answers with the correct use of "he and I." 

"Mary, get a ruler from Annie." "From whom did you get the 
ruler?" "From whom did Mary get the ruler.?" This may be 
continued by calling on different children and making use of different 
objects. "Where did you get it.?" "Where did I, he, she, we, 
they get it.?" The answers to questions of this sort will teach the 
children to use from instead of off. 



Drill 7 

Drill on "7 haven't any," or "7 have no" 

"You may tell me about some things which you haven't." 
"If you haven't a book, how would you tell me?" 



APPENDIX II 155 

"I haven't any book." 
"Tell it another way." 
"I have no book." 

"I haven't any mk." "I have no ink." 

"I haven't any pen." "I have no pen." 

"I haven't a paper." "I have no paper." 

"I haven't a crayola." "I have no crayola." 

Drill 8 

Correct Verb Forms 

"John, go to the closet, get a ruler, and put it on Mary's desk." 

"Tell me what you did." 

"I went to the closet, got a ruler, and put it on Mary's desk." 

"Mary, go to my desk, get two pencils, an eraser, and a key, and 
give them to Miss ..." 

"Tell me what you did," 

"Iwent to your desk, got two pencils, an eraser, and a key, and 
gave them to Miss ..." 

Drill 9 

Drill on "May IP" for "Can /.?" 
Drill on wrong use of "'Please.''' 

"Miss . . ., may I change my seat?" 

"Miss . . ., may I go home at eleven o'clock .f^" 

"Miss . . ., may I have another paper.?" 

"Miss . . ., may I have a book?" 

"Miss . . ., may I leave the room?" 

"Miss . . ., may I close the window?" 

Drill 10 

Use of "Isnr' 

Have a list of words on board. A child steps out of the room, 
while one of the class goes to the board and selects a word. Then 



156 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

the first child comes in, and points to the word he thinks the boy 
selected, and asks : 

"Is it every?'' 
"No, it isn't every'' 
"Yes, it is every." 

Make use of this game to fix the pronunciation of troublesome 
words and phrases in their minds, such as three, two, from, against, 
through, I had to, this afternoon, etc. 

Drill 11 
Game of Fortune Telling. — Correct Use of "Saw" 

To play this game the class should be divided into fortune seekers 
and fortune tellers. On the teacher's desk should be many pieces 
of paper, each having a picture on the under side; the upper side 
should be blank. 

Each fortune seeker in turn should go to the desk, take a paper, 
peep at the under side, and then, turning to a fortune teller, say what 
he saw. The fortune teller should at once tell the seeker's fortune. 
Thus: If a fortune seeker should say, "I saw a ship," the fortune 
teller should say, "You will be a sailor." 

The following suggestions will help in the beginning, but the teacher 
and pupils should be able to think of other pictures and fortunes. 

"I saw a club." "You will be a policeman." 

"I saw a hat." "You will be a milliner." 

"I saw a ladder." "You will be a fireman." 

"I saw an automobile." "You will be a chauffeur." 

Drill 12 
A Group of Similar Games 
Game 1. This game is like a spelling match. The teacher gives 



out the following words, one by one : 




a bubble a tulip 


a riddle 


a potato a whistle 


a wagou 



APPENDIX II 157 



a lesson 


a picture 


a kite 


a bean bag 


a ball 


a flag 


a horn 


a leaf 


an answer 



The pupil whose turn it is, should reply instantly, choosing the most 
fitting answer from the following sentences. It is a failure to hesi- 
tate or to give the wrong answer : 

I grew it I blew it I flew it 

I threw it I drew it I knew it 

Game 2. For another game, the teacher may give out the same 
words, and the pupil whose turn it is may respond instantly with 
one of the following questions : 

" Have you ever known one ? " 
"Have you ever blown one ?" 
" Have you ever shown one ? " 
"Have you ever flown one?" 
" Have you ever thrown one ? " 
"Have you ever grown one?" 

Game 3. Make up a similar one for the class to play, using these 
words : 

bought caught 

thought taught 

fought brought 

Game 4. A similar game may be made, using the following sen- 
tences, only there will be no rhyming words in it : 

I saw it. I ate it. I said it. 

I did it. I lost it. I showed it. 

I chose it. I took it. I strung it. 

I wrote it. I gave it. I spun it. 

I broke it. I sang it. I hid it. 

I tore it. I shook it. I bit it. 

I wore it. I swung it. I wove it. 

I stuck it. I rang it. 

I drove it. I dug it. 



158 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Drill 13 

Use of "DoesrCV 

"Tell me some things your mother doesn't do; your father; your 
teacher ; a squirrel ; a robin :" 

"My mother doesn't talk English." 
"My mother doesn't work in the mill." 
"My mother doesn't start the fire." 
"My mother doesn't chop wood." 
"My mother doesn't like dirty books." 

APPENDIX III 

STANDARD LETTER FORMS 

Adopted for Use in the Boston Public Schools upon the Recommendation of the 
Committee on Standards in English 

THE FRIENDLY LETTER 

316 Summit Street, 

Pomona, Cal., 
September 2, 1913. 
Dear Marion, 

Mother and I reached home yesterday after our visit of three 
months in the East. Although we had a pleasant time with 
our relatives in Maine and Massachusetts, we are glad to be at 
home once more. 

The peaches and plums are ripe now, and we spend all day 
on the ranch helping the men gather the crop. I wish that you 
could be here to help eat our peaches, but I suppose you are 
enjoying your good Massachusetts apples. 
Give my love to your mother and write soon. 

Your loving friend, 

Helen Garland. 



APPENDIX III 159 



THE BUSINESS LETTER 



321 Beacon Street, 
Boston, Mass., 

January 20, 1914. 
Charles Lowell & Company, 
36 State Street, 
Boston, Mass. 

Dear Sirs : 

In reply to your advertisement in today's "Herald" for a 
clerk in your office, I wish to submit my application. 

I am fourteen years of age and am a graduate of the Prospect 
School. My report card shows my standing in arithmetic and 
spelling. This letter is a specimen of my handwriting. 

I refer to Mr: John L. Stevens, the principal of the Prospect 
School, and to Rev. George Chase, 25 Wilson Road, Boston. 

Trusting that you will consider my application favorably, I am. 

Respectfully yours, 

Richard H. Williams. 



Arrangement of Letter. 

The heading should be at least one inch from the top of the 
paper. 

The heading and also the complimentary close should begin 
near the middle of the line. 

Each line after the first in the heading and in the complimen- 
tary close should begin a little farther to the right than the pre- 
ceding line. 

There should be a margin of one half -inch on the left side of the 
note paper. 

A paragraph margin should be twice the regular margin. 

The complimentary close should begin with a capital and 
should be followed by a comma. 



160 SPEAKING AND WRITING ENGLISH 

Model Form for Addressing Envelope. 

Miss Marion L. Brown, Charles Lowell & Company, 

14 Prospect Street, 36 State Street, 

Reading, Mass. Boston, Mass. 

Directions for Envelope. 

1. Use ink in addressing letters or other mail matter. 

2. Write plainly the name of the person addressed, street and 
number, post office and state. 

3. Place your name and address in the upper left-hand corner 
of the envelope or package. 

4. The name of the person addressed should be written in 
about the middle of the envelope and with about as much space 
at the right as at the left, and each following line of the super- 
scription should begin an even distance at the right of the pre- 
ceding line. 



INDEX 



Aims, 

General, 1, 3. 

First Grade, 51. 

Second Grade, 61. 

Third Grade, 74. 

Fourth Grade, 86, 90. 

Fifth Grade, 97, 104. 

Sixth Grade, 109, 114. 

Seventh Grade, 120, 125. 

Eighth Grade, 132, 136. 
Assignment of work by grades. 

First, 51. 

Second, 61. 

Third, 74. 

Fourth, 86. 

Fifth, 97. 

Sixth, 109. 

Seventh, 120. 

Eighth, 132. 

Choice of Words, 127, 128, 140. 
Correction of compositions, 49, 119. 
Criticism, teaching it, 46. 

Errors of Speech, 

Classification, 150. 

General, 3, 4, 119. 

First Grade, 58. 

Second Grade, 64. 

Thu-d Grade, 79. 

Fourth Grade, 87. 

Fifth Grade, 101. 

Sixth Grade, 111. 

Seventh Grade, 123. 

Eighth Grade, 135. 
Experience, 5, 24, 98. 



Game, language, 149, 151. 

Grammar, see Technicalities, 82, 94, 106, 

116, 128, and Errors of Speech for 

all grades. 

Language games, 149, 151. 
Letters, 91, 158. 

One-paragraph compositions, 11. 
Oral English, see Spoken English. 

Paragraph, 

One-paragraph compositions, 11. 

Importance of keeping it short, 13. 

Starting it right, 35. * 

Good endings, 39. 

Weak endings, 38. 
Pronunciation, 6, 147, 148. 

Self-expression, 18, 19. 
"Sentence Idea," 3, 40, 43. 
"Single-phase idea," 26. 
Sounds presenting difficulty, 147. 
Spoken English, 1, 3, 6. 

First Grade, 51. 

Second Grade, 61. 

Third Grade, 74. 

Fourth Grade, 86. 

Fifth Grade, 97. 

Sixth Grade, 109. 

Seventh Grade, 120. 

Eighth Grade, 132. 
Spelling, general, 45. 

Second Grade, 73. 

Third Grade, 82. 
' Fourth Grade, 94. 



161 



162 



INDEX 



Spelling, — continued. 

Fifth Grade, 107. 

Sixth Grade, 116. 

Seventh Grade, 129. 

Eighth Grade, 142. 
Standards, oral, general, 1, 3. 

First Grade, 54. 

Second Grade, 62. 

Third Grade, 76. 

Fourth Grade, 87. 

Fifth Grade, 100. 

Sixth Grade, 110. 

Seventh Grade, 122. 

Eighth Grade, 133. 
Standards, written, general, 3. 

First Grade, 57. 

Second Grade, 72. 

Third Grade, 83. 

Fourth Grade, 93, 96. 

Fifth Grade, 108. 

Sixth Grade, 117. 

Seventh Grade, 130. 

Eighth Grade, 143. 

Letter Forms, 158. 



Subjects, of compositions. 
Personal, definite, brief, 14. 
Good and bad, 17. 
Not personal, 17, 18. 
Too large, 17. 
First Grade, 51. 
Second Grade, 61. 
Third Grade, 74, 82. 

Three-sentence oral composition, 43. 
Titles, 22. 

See Subjects. 
Topics, see Subjects. 

Written EngHsh, 1, 3, 8. 
First Grade, 56. 
Second Grade, 65, 68. 
Third Grade, 81. • 
Fourth Grade, 90. 
Fifth Grade, 108. 
Sixth Grade, 117. 
Seventh Grade, 130. 
Eighth Grade, 136. 



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